HARMONY — The borough will consider adoption of the 2009 International Property Maintenance Code at its April 7 meeting.

According to Councilman Jason Sarver, the code would provide the borough with the ability to ensure the safety and aesthetic appeal of buildings within the municipality.

“It allows us to, as a municipality, maintain properties in a certain manner that doesn't affect others negatively, and for safety reasons too,” he said.

The maintenance code would, if adopted by the borough as an ordinance, apply to all existing and new structures, providing rules on light, ventilation, sanitation and safety for those structures.

Harmony previously considered that code in 2018, but shied away from passing it after concerns were raised by members of the Harmony Business Association over the broadness of the code as well as fears that individuals might anonymously report businesses for code issues as a weapon.

Those concerns were raised again at the borough's March 3 meeting, at which Josh Meeder, owner of Center of Harmony, noted that he felt the business association had provided its definitive feedback when the issue first emerged two years ago.

“I'm actually a little annoyed that this came back up,” he said. “It was a clear, definitive 'no' from the members of the business community. I understand the need and why they're out there, but we are not a community in blight, we are not a big city, and you're adding 70 to 80 pages of regulations and possible additional violations.”

Meeder also said, as he did in 2018, according to meeting minutes, that he is concerned people might try using a property maintenance code as a weapon against a competing business or a business they don't like.

“This goes back to the larger issue of reporting, where there's anonymous reporting. I have been personally targeted and have had ridiculous grasses-too-high ordinance things,” Meeder said.

“This opens up the floodgates for a lot of people and I have it (in) writing from council that there are known issues with people who don't like certain businesses,” he said.

But Sarver disagreed, saying code enforcement officers know when someone's trying to use codes as a weapon, even if the report is made anonymously.

“A good code officer can detect it,” he said. “If there's an issue with two people, you can tell right away.”

Sarver also disagreed with Meeder's characterization of the code as “onerous and extensive,” saying the 2009 code is 45 pages, rather than the 70 to 80 pages Meeder cited, and that it's a simplified version of other IPMC editions.