Community Standards

The Community Standards Department is comprised of three divisions, Neighborhood Services, Fire Inspections, and Housing Services. These divisions:

Protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community through enforcement of the Minnesota Uniform Fire Code, Blaine Code of Ordinances, and Blaine Zoning Ordinances.
Eliminate the spread of blight, protect property values, and ensure safe, healthy neighborhoods through enforcement of community standards initiated with complaints and proactive neighborhood observations.
Ensure safe commercial, industrial, and residential structures through a comprehensive fire prevention program involving plan review, inspections, and investigations.
Promote voluntary home improvements, code compliance, and fire safety through education programs, incentive programs, and housing rehabilitation loans.
Ensure that the rental units within Blaine are safe and well maintained through the rental licensing and inspection program.
Support the volunteer fire department through emergency response, pre-incident plans, reduction of fire calls, and installation of automatic extinguisher systems.

Role

Neighborhood Services enforces City Ordinances relating to the public health, safety and general condition and upkeep of the community. This department responds to residents inquiries about code issues. If a code violation is found to exist, a letter is sent to the resident which outlines the steps that need to be taken to correct the violation. In most instances residents are simply unaware of the code and correct the situation immediately.

The Neighborhood Services Department strives to work cooperatively with residents and business owners to gain voluntary compliance of Community Standards (PDF). If the correction is not made in a reasonable amount of time a municipal or county ticket may be issued.