Stow Looks to Define Drug Lab Houses

After several meth lab discoveries, Stow City Council is considering creating a new section of the city code that deals specifically with the identification, notification and clean-up of "clandestine drug labs" in residential properties.

Council reviewed proposed legislation Monday in committee that would establish chapter 1313 in the city code to target such drug labs and spell out exactly how the city would address the properties.

Amber Zibritosky, Stow's deputy law director, said the new legislation, if approved, would give city officials the ability to address properties that otherwise tend to become vacant or abandoned once identified by law enforcement as being associated with a dangerous drug lab.

"This … piece of legislation gives the city the ability to condemn these properties that are typically associated with meth lab properties," she said. "Right now the city and most communities in the state … don’t have the ability to get involved."

Zibritosky said in most cases the issue starts when police find evidence of a meth lab or other illegal drug assembly. Right now, the city has no authority to force a property owner to properly clean a property of residual chemicals.

"These chemicals are so invasive that they get into the walls and the carpet," Zibritosky said.

She said the city encountered a case in 2004 when tenants who moved into a residential property became sick due to exposure to residual chemicals from a drug lab.

"If there’s nothing structurally wrong with it … we can’t tear it down," Zibritosky said. "So right now it’s a vacant piece of property that’s hazardous that nobody can live in."

Under the new code, the process starts after police have determined that some portion of a property housed a clandestine drug lab. Then, the property is declared public health nuisance by the city.

The proposed legislation spells out specific requirements and responsibilities of a property owner whose land is identified by authorities as having housed a drug lab.

Property owners would be given 14 days from the nuisance declaration to contract with appropriate environmental testing and cleaning firms to conduct an on-site assessment, complete clean-up and remediation testing and follow-up testing, according to the proposed legislation. Land owners who look to conduct a preliminary assessment are given 21 days to do so.

In either case, property owners are given 90 days to finish the remediation process.

The legislation states the property must be vacated as soon as the nuisance declaration is made.

Tony Catalano, Stow's chief building inspector, said the new legislation gives the city authority to act if the property owner fails to within that three-month period.

"If they don’t act in an expediate manner we have the ability to go in and address the matter," he said. 

If the city decides to act on a property, it would undergo the same process of hiring a consultant to assess the property's level of contamination. All properties listed as public nuisances as the result of a clandestine drug lab operation would also be added to a public list to be posted on the city's website.

"It remains on a list ... once it’s identified by law enforcement as a meth contaminated property," Catalano said. "Then we would rely on the company that does the abatement to provide us with documentation that it is in fact clean. To what extent would depend on the contamination.

"After it’s been remediated we would make a note that it’s been cleaned, but it would remain on the website as a property that was contaminated," he said.

Council voted to move the proposed new code to its agenda for the regular meeting Thursday night.

Councilman Brian Lowdermilk said his only concern was that landlords may be unfairly held responsible for the acts of a criminal tenant.

"We all agree we have to stop these from happening and take care of them," Lowdermilk said. "I want to make sure we take care of the problem but don’t unduly burden somebody who through no fault of their own was put in this position."

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• Charges Filed in Meth Explosion
• Demolition Begins on Condemned Meth House on Uniondale (Photos)