Nixon adopts minimum property standards, other ordinances

Nixon City Council members on Monday, Nov. 18, unanimously adopted a set of minimum property standards for the city that will give code enforcement the teeth it needs to battle unsafe living conditions.

Council members also unanimously adopted a peddler ordinance which addresses sales within the city limits as well as adopted a new Fire Prevention and Protection Ordinance and the 2021 versions of the various International Code Council code which govern building, residential, mechanical, plumbing, electric and existing building standards.

Code Enforcement Officer Rachel Barber told council members she has been working extensively with City Attorney Eddie Escobar to establish minimum property standards due to concerns about homes which do not have any utility services.

“Most cities our size or bigger are starting to go to you have to have electric, water, sewer and trash in order to live there, because we currently have quite a few residents that either don't have one or multiples of those things,” Barber said.

“Those are usually the problem houses as well, but we have a lot of people calling and complaining about smells; sewer backups because they don't have water turned on, but they're still using water from the car wash or wherever to flush their toilets, so they're still getting sewer but without having to pay for it at that point; as well as multiple other violations that usually are encompassed when these things aren't a habit of being in effect.”

Barber said the standards have already been enacted in other cities in the vicinity like Shiner, Yoakum, Kenedy and others that are about the same size as Nixon to keep residents safe, especially more vulnerable populations like children and the elderly, because of the dangers that substandard housing and lack of sanitary conditions create.

Police Chief Miguel Cantu said there are a number of residences where “homeless people have moved in and the sewer is horrible.”

“It's just been an ongoing problem for the time that I've been here, and our hands have been tied regarding those things,” Cantu said. “They decide not to have water. Some have no electricity, and they do not have trash pickup. So, what do they do with the trash? They put it out of the road, or they leave inside the house. It's just not good for the land values here. It's just not good for the city.”

Escobar even acknowledged instances where listings have been made in Nixon on AirBnB where “what's happening is a property owner will put a tent on Airbnb with no facilities, no bathroom, nothing like that.”
“I know in one instance, Officer Barber reached out to Airbnb about this kind of thing. We have to have something like this in place for them to take it down,” Escobar said. “It’s not that it could happen. It is happening here.

“The fact of the matter is it's not sanitary and the only way that we can go to companies like Airbnb is if we have these minimum standards.”

There is currently a listing on Airbnb by an individual named Blake for an “entire home in Nixon, Texas” that states it is available for five guests with three bedrooms and one bath for $94 per night with the headline “Off-grid Bring your bed.”

“Very large spaces. Imagine you're camping. Which you can in the huge back yard / garden. Some rooms not level,” the ad states.

The listing indicates hot water, heating, essentials, kitchen, smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm are not included with the only amenities being “dedicated workspace” and “free parking on premises.”

“Airbnb isn't the only culprit,” Escobar said. “There's applications for cell phones that are used by transients to find locations where they can squat for a few days. Once they get wind that there's maybe an abandoned house or there's somewhere where they can squat for a week or a few days, they use these applications to find these properties. I know that has happened here in the past as well, so it's just a matter of cleaning this up to give enforcement some more teeth with regards to what is allowable and not allowable.”

Barber said she is aware right now of at least 10 to 15 properties “I can’t do anything with because we don’t have this in place. There are that many houses that don’t have power or water that I am aware of and there are multiple people residing in these houses.”

The ordinance also contains protection for renters by giving them rights to have Barber get involved if a landlord refuses to fix a substandard issue.

“They (renters) can invite me in and say, ‘Hey, the landlord is refusing to fix it. Can you come in?’ If there's certain things that are not connected, or certain things that are not working, I can get involved and help them have minimum standards,” Barber said. “This would not mean that I can come into your house just whenever I want to.”

The peddler ordinance streamlines the regular peddler ordinance with the mobile peddler and food peddler ordinances into one ordinance to make it easier to read and understand and removes references to fees, which are instead included in the city’s fee schedule and rate structure.

The new fire ordinance removes reference to the Nixon Fire and Rescue as that organization and Smiley Volunteer Fire Department are being reorganized into the Gonzales County Emergency Services District No. 2 Fire South.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Review, which oversees industrialized housing and building, has stated that effective July 1, 2024, “all industrialized housing and buildings, modules, and modular components shall comply with  … 70.101 of the IHB Rules.”

The state is requiring adoption of the 2021 editions of the Building, Residential, Mechanical, Plumbing  and Existing Building Codes and the 2015 version of the Energy Conservation Code. However, the city decided to adopt the 2021 version of all the codes for consistency. The city had not updated its ICC codes since at least 2011, city officials said.