Council Bluffs, IA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

CBMC Chapter 13.03 adopts, with local amendments, the International Conference of Building Officials' 1997 Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings as the city's standard for substandard and dangerous structures. Under CBMC 13.03.050, once the building official declares a building dangerous, the owner must bring it into compliance one of two ways: repair it to the current building code or another code that fits the substandard condition, or demolish it, at the owner's option. If the structure is in a condition that makes it immediately dangerous to life, limb, property or public safety, the building official orders it vacated regardless of the owner's repair-or-demolish choice.

Notice and orders are served personally or by certified mail to the address on the county's last equalized assessment roll under CBMC 13.03.040; if no address is known, notice runs once in the Daily Nonpareil and by regular mail to the property's own address instead. An owner can appeal to the Building Board of Appeals, established under CBMC 13.03.030 and CBMC 13.08, and any party still aggrieved by the board's decision may take the matter to a court of competent jurisdiction under Iowa law. CBMC 13.03.020 makes it unlawful to erect, alter, repair, occupy or maintain a building in violation of the adopted dangerous-buildings code, tying enforcement to the same misdemeanor and municipal-infraction penalty structure used across the building code.