Porch couches could be axed after code update

Renters, get your indoor couch off your outside porch.

That’s one of the changes the Bloomington City Council approved in the Bloomington Property Maintenance Code on Nov. 14.

Changes in smoke detector requirements dominated the debate during the Property Maintenance Code updating process, but other changes are coming soon.

Couches, armchairs and futons are among the traditional indoor furniture that dot Bloomington front porches. In the near future, rental property tenants will be banned from using such seating and instead be limited to using only designated outdoor furniture.

The ban on upholstered porch furniture won’t immediately go into effect. A review of certain parts of the Property Maintenance Code by the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission is tentatively set for February 2013.

Housing and Neighborhood Development Director Lisa Abbott said she worked on the updates for months. The code’s most recent update was in 2003.

Much of the property in Bloomington is rental units. In 2011, there were 21,612 registered rental units in the city, accounting for 60 percent of total housing, according to city records.

“The neighborhoods have been asking for this for a long time, for a number of reasons,” Abbott said.

She cited neighbor complaints on weather-exposed upholstered furniture that often begins to smell due to mildew. Aesthetic concerns of older front porch furniture also played into some complaints.

“You can still sit on your front porch and enjoy the great outdoors,” Abbott said. “You’ll just have to use furniture intended for outdoor use.”

But more than complaints, the decision was also made out of safety concerns, Assistant City Attorney Patty Mulvihill said.

“It’s a public health matter,” Mulvihill said. “They like the stuffing and the warmness. We see a lot of infestation problems coming from the front porches.”

The problem is nothing new, she said.

“The couches have been an issue for a while, but this is the first time we’ve been able to address it,” Mulvihill said.

Mulvihill said she wasn’t sure exactly when the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission members would read through the code changes. Nor did she know definitively if the commission would approve or strike the changes individually or altogether.

She said the changes were not the biggest message of the new code. Rather, she said it’s the fact that HAND and its resources exist.

“I think it’s an underutilized resource of the average renter in Bloomington,” she said.