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CITY OF A.TLANTA CITY HALL ATLANTA, GA. 30303 Tel. 522-4463 Area Code 404 DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING COLLIER B. GLADIN, Director January 10, 1969 ? Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. City of Atlanta City Hall Atlanta, Georgia Dear Mayor Allen: ~ · In developing a new Housing Code Compliance Program th~epartment and Building Department are convinced that a city-wide field survey of housi~·~f · conditions must be conducted in the second quarter of 1969. A new survey is the only way to obtain the information necessary to es tab I ish the Ieve I of accomplishment of the original Housing Code Compliance Program and to develop realistic priorities for housing code inspections for the next several years. No accurate or complete information has been maintained on housing condition changes with in the city since the 1965 Community Improvement Program Survey, and an efficient, new program cannot be developed from obsolete management information. Both the Building Department and Planning Department believe the proposed survey will facilitate the development of a more effective Housing Code Compliance Program. In short, there is no other way to quantitatively and qualitatively measure the level of accomplishment of the first five year Housing Code Compliance Program, to wit: which areas have been stabilized; which areas have regressed; which areas are continuing to decline and for what reasons; which areas require more constant survei I lance than that provided to th is point; how can we more effectively apply our personnel and what additional personnel will be required to halt slum and blight development and spread, etc. Who should undertake the proposed survey? For several reasons, the two Departments feel that Housing Code Inspectors are ideally suited to conduct the necessary field survey: �Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. -2- January 10, 1969 I. The original five year inspection program has been accomplished ahead of schedule. Al I of the original inspections have been completed. What remains are uncomplied cases which can be assigned to the Sector Inspectors, plus handling city-wide inspections on a complaint basis. Thus, the Concentrated Area Inspectors would be in a logical position wherein they could begin immediate preparations for the proposed field survey. 2. The proposed field survey must be initiated in the next few months. HUD · requirements on the Workable Program provide for a Housing Code Compliance Program. The Workable Program must be recertified in September, 1969 and current information is essential to its preparation. Since the survey will take at least three months to complete, actual field work must begin by the first of March at the very latest to be of greatest use. Consequently, time being a major factor we must use those personnel most familiar with the type of information being sought. 3. The inspectors are better qualified than anyone else in the city to conduct a Housing Conditions Survey. They have inspected the city's houses for five years; they know what to look for and can be quickly trained in survey techniques because of thei_r background in housing terminology, conditions and experience in meeting the public. 4. The inspectors will be required to furnish continuous informat_ion to keep the survey data updated. In other words, their observations during the course of later inspections wi 11 be fed back into the central record keeping system to keep the housing conditions statistics current. The experience they wi 11 gain while conducting the survey will be invaluable training for this future role, and 5. The inspectors will gain valuable familiarity with all areas of the city during the survey which will be of use to them at a later date when they are making inspections and attempting to obtain comp Iiances. Since the present program is running ahead of schedule relative to original inspections, it is recommended that extensive time and manpower be devoted to uncompl ied cases in order to gain more lasting compliances prior to initiating any new program . As soon as the field survey techniques an d policies are developed, ten of the inspectors would be assigned to the su rvey . Thi s would leave the other ten inspectors to concentrate on obtaining compliances and to cover city - wide inspections on a complaint basis. The ten �Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. -3- January 10, 1969 inspectors on the survey team can completely cover the city in three to four months, enabling the Planning Department to use this information in developing a new Housing Code Compliance Program. In turn, the new Housing Code Compliance Program can be incorporated into· the 1969 Workable Program. A more complete and detailed explanation of the contents of this letter is contained in 1rHousing Code· Compliance Program: Interim Proposal, 1969. 11 Background material is contained in 11 The Housing Code Comp Iiance Program: Background and Present Situation (Problems and Recommendations for Action)." Both of these · are products of departmental staff and attached hereto. We seek your endorsement of this proposal. If further explanation or additional information is required we wil I be pleased to meet with you at your convenience. Sincerely, ~~t~~ Collier B. Gladin Planning Director ~~ -7c"'70~ William R. Wofford Building Official CBG/WRW/jp Attachments �