Batavia to talk rental housing rules

Should Batavia bother pursuing a program to improve rental housing and, if so, to what extent?

Aldermen on the city council's city services committee will discuss the matter at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Batavia Government Center, 100 N. Island Ave.

The committee last talked about the issue in September, and directed city staff to obtain copies of crime-free housing ordinances from Aurora, Elk Grove Village and West Chicago.

Studying what other towns have done, community development director Jerry Swanson believes licensing rental housing is a “fundamental requirement” to any effort to improve the properties, according to a memo written to the committee.

Nothing was put in the 2011 budget for a rental program. Swanson suggests permits could be handled by an existing automated permit program in the community development department, and that the police department could train landlords and property managers about maintaining crime-free housing and lease requirements they could have tenants sign.

But a rental program would be labor-intensive. And inspecting unit interiors, and researching tenants' and owners' backgrounds, raises privacy issues, according to the memo.

The mayor has identified improving rental housing as a major issue now that the city has the legal power to do so as a home-rule community.

The memo can be viewed on the city council calendar at cityofbatavia.net.