The Mountlake Terrace City Council approved new zoning code enforcement procedures at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

The city’s Planning Commission held a public hearing on the topic in September 2015, and then later approached the city council with its recommendation.

The ordinance was unanimously passed Tuesday night.

The city’s Community Development Director or an authorized representative can investigate any structure they don’t believe meets code. Then, they must give a notice of violation to the offender. In it, the director must specify what law is being violated and give a “reasonable” time frame for it to be fixed.

After that, violators could face a fine per day up to $5,000 if the problem isn’t addressed, or jail time of up to 364 days.

The ordinance does not change nuisance codes, just code enforcement.

“This will hopefully provide a more efficient code enforcement,” Community and Economic Development Director Steve Osguthorpe said.

Also on Tuesday night, the city heard a presentation by Public Works Director Chad Schulhauser on a new Lakeview Drive overlay. Schulhauser says it will lengthen the life of Lakeview Drive until the funds are acquired to completely rebuild it.

The City of Edmonds in conjunction with the City of Mountlake Terrace has already rebuilt Lakeview Drive from the city limits to the Andorra Apartments entrance as part of the 228^th Street Southwest corridor improvements project, but there is not enough money to finish construction to 64^th Avenue West.

The overlay project will include four new curb ramps, pavement repair areas, minor storm drainage improvements and pavement markings.

The city of Mountlake Terrace won a grant from the State Transportation Improvement Board for $840,060.

In order to qualify for the grant, which has an economy of scale requirement, the city will need to enter into an interlocal agreement with Snohomish County.

The city will vote on accepting the grant and interlocal agreement at the Feb. 1 meeting.

–By Natalie Covate