Property maintenance code priority for Westminster

Westminster’s first-year administrator warned the city council last night that downtown blight could block the city’s efforts to attract new investment.  And coming out of last night’s informal meeting was agreement that Westminster needs a property maintenance code.  Right now, according to administrator Chris Carter, the city has a minimal maintenance code and nothing that governs commercial property.  The mayor and council held their second retreat-style meeting in the last four months last night and heard Carter refer to 2015’s controversial period of code enforcement this way: “You had too much (code enforcement) two years ago, and now you’ve got none at all,” Carter said. “There’s a middle ground.” Mayor Brian Ramey said the main problem with the past enforcement was a former codes officer enforcing codes the city had not adopted. Ramey is hopeful that the city’s elected leaders will unanimously vote for and support a maintenance code because he expects some Westminster residents will respond with the attitude that their property is theirs and they’ll do with it as they please.