City Administrator Robert Heacock said the codes were not new, but the revisions were intended to make the rules easier to understand and more specific, The Kansas City Star reported.
For example: The ordinance now defines significant damage to a supporting member of a structure as damage of 33 percent or more, where previously it read: "substantial damage."
A building unsafe to inhabit, perhaps because of unsanitary conditions, was mentioned only as one paragraph in the dangerous-building ordinance, so the city wrote a new ordinance that defines an unsafe building. It covers problems from rodent or insect infestations to improperly installed electrical equipment.
Heacock said the codes department gets a "couple hundred" cases of unsafe buildings a year, usually referred from other city agencies such as police.
The city returns that money to owners when repairs are completed, but if they "walk away" from a damaged building, then the city can use that money to cover its costs to correct the situation.
The council vote on the "unsafe to occupy" ordinance was unanimous.
