Politics & Government
Mayor Sets Goal for Landlord Registration
City also decides to negotiate deal with Glenview to consolidate police and fire dispatch services. Lake Forest and Lake Bluff will likely be included.
An ordinance requiring owners of rental housing to register with the City will be before the Highland Park City Council within a month and further requirements by the end of March if Mayor Nancy Rotering has her way.
Rotering and the Council heard a report from Community Development Director Joel Fontane during a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday at City Hall describing available options to help assure landlords and their tenants comply with city code requirements.
The City began looking at some of these ideas in August after the Highland Park Police Department learned of code violations with people living in unsafe conditions. Then a fire Dec. 21 which injured two people, one critically, in part because of code violations prompted Monday’s discussion.
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“How do you keep people safe without displacement?” Rotering said after hearing Fontane’s ideas. “We want to keep our residents safe and keep landlords responsible as human beings to other human beings.”
Within a month Rotering wants an ordinance before the Council which will require landlords to register with the City so officials will know exactly who to contact in an emergency. By the end of March, she wants a second law mandating education of landlords and tenants.
Find out what's happening in Highland Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In other action Monday during the formal meeting, the Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the City to negotiate an agreement with Glenview to subcontract its police and fire dispatch services. The existing Highland Park dispatch center will still be used. Lake Forest and Lake Bluff plan to join the group.
City Manager David Knapp estimates Highland Park will save approximately $250,000 a year as a result of the deal. A final contract, when arranged, must still be approved by the Council.
Patch will have a detailed story later this week on both the proposed rental housing ideas and the consolidated dispatch center.
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