Hatfield board continues talks on imminent danger code

HATFIELD TWP. – For the second straight meeting, Hatfield township’s board of commissioners is keeping the discussion going on whether the township should adopt a provision or ordinance allowing the township to address imminent dangers on private property.

Board President Tom Zipfel said Wednesday night that he hopes the board will be able to adopt such a code as soon as June, and laid out a rough draft of a potential code with a series of criteria he hopes it will address.

‘There are several very specific scenarios we have discussed, and we’re looking at what might be relatively little expense but we could fix,’ said Zipfel.

‘I don’t think this imminent danger ordinance is the end of our conversation with regard to properties in the township generally, I think this is just a first step,’ he said.

Last month, Zipfel proposed that the board discus and ultimately adopt some provision of township code that would allow staff to address safety concerns on properties that are abandoned or unused, such as an empty swimming pool that is unguarded or homes with structural problems that could attract kids towards a dangerous situation.

Any such code should be careful to specify that an imminent danger to a person’s health or welfare exists, that the costs of fixing the problem be recouped by the township through a lien on the property owner, and that notices be posted on that dangerous property letting residents know of a potential hazard, Zipfel told the board.

Another of Zipfel’s concerns focused on the definition of ‘abandoned’ as would be specified in the code – as solicitor David Sander pointed out, the term ‘abandoned’ can carry specific legal connotations including an intent to abandon the property, while the term ‘vacant’ may be more applicable for the properties that the township wants to address.

‘When you ‘abandon,’ you not only physically have to abandon it but there also has to be a legal intent to abandon. In other words, you’re not trying to sell it, rent it, market it in any way, or convert it to another use,’ Sander said.

‘I don’t think the board wants to get into having to prove that before they go ahead, so ‘vacant’ may be an easier term because it doesn’t have the legal baggage that the term ‘abandonment’ does,’ he said.

Commissioner Scott Brown said he agreed with Zipfel’s criteria in his proposed draft of the code, but said he was wary of writing into township code the requirements that township officials address problems on vacant properties without also addressing the same problems on properties that are occupied.

‘The first line: ‘To minimize the risk of danger or death to persons due to failure or collapse of a building,’ and if people are living there, then we’re not going to do anything,’ he said.

‘If there are actually people living in that building, which may mean a higher probability of someone being injured than if the property’s abandoned, I’m struck that we really are ignoring the buildings that are occupied,’ Brown said.

When discussion began on the imminent danger provision last month, Brown had suggested the township revisit a property maintenance code it discussed but ultimately declined to adopt last year.

Zipfel replied that he felt the two were similar but unrelated conversations, and he encouraged more public feedback on both sides of the same question: ‘what rights does the township have to come onto a property?’

‘Where there are residents who reside there, and the concern is that you’re coming onto my property and telling me what to do, that’s a similar issue,’ but not one the proposed imminent danger ordinance would address, Zipfel said.

The board then directed Sander to revise and clean up the language of Zipfel’s draft ordinance and present it to the township’s Public Safety Committee, which next meets at 6 p.m. on May 23 just before the board meeting at 7:30 p.m. that night.

Both of those meetings will be held in the township administration building, located at 1950 School Road, and Zipfel said he hoped the board could advertise and adopt the code during its subsequent two meetings, scheduled for June 13 and 27.

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