RENTALS MAY RECEIVE REGULAR INSPECTIONS.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Lancaster is creating a new program to have every apartment and rental home in the city inspected on a regular basis for health and building code violations.

Under the plan, rental units would be inspected at intervals of one, two or three years, depending on the violations found and whether the landlord made necessary improvements in a timely manner.

The additional staffing needed for the program -- three code enforcement officers and an administrative clerk -- would be paid for by a fee of $93 for the inspection of the first rental unit and a $23 fee per each additional unit.

``This program is designed to proactively identify blighted, deteriorated and substandard rental housing stock and to ensure the rehabilitation or elimination of such housing that does not meet minimum standards,'' said Elizabeth Brubaker, Lancaster's housing and neighborhood revitalization director. ``These standards address not only life, health and safety issues but also the results of deferred or inadequate maintenance.''

A City Council vote to implement the program is expected at its Jan. 23 meeting.

The proposed program also calls for changing an existing rental business license fee to a flat rate of $60 per building from the current fee of $65 for landlords with two units and $25 for each additional unit. The city staff is in discussions with the Greater Antelope Valley Association of Realtors as to whether property owners with multiple single-family home rentals should be charged one fee for all the sites or if each site needs to be licensed separately.

Association representatives are supportive of the program, but question the fairness of requiring multiple business licenses.

The business license fee was created in 2004 to fund the Lancaster Community Appreciation Project, or LAN-CAP, to deal with crime coming from rental units. The fee funds an eight-member deputy team that works on crimes related to rental units.

``This gives us an opportunity to inspect the rental units and deal with any problems with building code violations or health code violations or law enforcement problems,'' Vice Mayor Ed Sileo said. ``It only takes one bad neighbor to ruin a neighborhood.''

Under the plan, after the initial round of inspections, buildings in which no major violations are found will be re-inspected in three years. Buildings in which violations are found, but corrected within 30 days, will be re-inspected in two years.

Buildings in which violations have been found, but not corrected within 30 days, will be subjected to an inspection in one year.

``I'm in favor of the inspection time frame,'' Sileo said. ``You get rewarded for good behavior and punished for bad behavior. That's the way it should be.''

The 2000 U.S. Census recorded 14,815 rental units in Lancaster. The number is probably closer to 20,000 units now, city officials said.

james.skeen@dailynews

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