Columbus City Council tonight is expected to approve legislation designed to crack down on hotels and motels that are poorly maintained havens for criminal activity.
City leaders have been working to craft the legislation for the last two years. Jim Letizia reports.
Problem hotels and motels have been in the news for several years. Recent public attention has focused on establishments in the I-71/State Route 161 area on the North side and a now-demolished motel on East Main Street. These hotels and motels get a high number of police calls for violence, robbery, gang activity, drug activity, prostitution, and human trafficking. Police and neighborhood leaders say lack of attention by the owners fosters this activity, and creates establishments that are health hazards and eyesores. In the past, Columbus officials used nuisance-abatement laws and fire code violations to shut them down. This process in some cases took as long a two years to complete. In October of 2013, neighborhood leaders, the city attorney’s office and police began working with city council on new regulations the city believes would allow for faster closure of troubled facilities. The result is legislation requiring owners to obtain a permit to operate each year. That permit would cost 85 dollars. It could be revoked by the city's License Section for unaddressed fire-code violations and/or a pattern of criminal activities mentioned earlier. The permit could not be revoked until a formal hearing is held. Owners could then appeal to the License Appeal Board if the hearing determines the permit should stay revoked. Elected city leaders, police, prosecutors, neighborhood groups like the Northland Area Business Association and industry reprsentatives like the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association are on record supporting the legislation. The city says it will continue to aggressively prosecute those responsible for individual crimes, but says this new process will also hold more accountable the owners of hotels and motels who create an environment for those crimes to flourish. The new ordinance, if approved, would also apply to extended-stay hotels, and would take effect within 30 days of the Mayor signing it into law.
