Syracuse - The City of Syracuse Friday was notified that the Appeals Court in Rochester declared that its Certificate of Sufficiency and Nuisance Party Ordinances are valid. 

The decision reversed a July 2006 decision by the Supreme Court of Onondaga County, which had ruled that the ordinances were not valid because no environmental review had been conducted prior to the adoption of the ordinances.

“This means that the City has the necessary tools to better enforce existing laws that help ensure that properties and their tenants are not nuisances to their neighborhoods,” said Rory McMahon, the city’s Corporation Counsel.

The Certificate of Sufficiency Ordinance, which will go in effect January 1, 2008, requires non-owner occupied 1 and 2 family houses in special neighborhood districts, as established by the City of Syracuse legislation, to obtain a certificate of sufficiency, to ensure they are in compliance with codes and zoning requirements including certificate of suitability. Currently there is only one special neighborhood district in the City of Syracuse, located in the University Area and established in 1992. 

The Nuisance Party Ordinance, effective when it was passed in November of 2005, holds owners and tenants responsible for making sure that any social gatherings held on their premises are not conducted in such a manner as to become a nuisance to neighboring properties, such as no public urination, blocking of traffic, illegal parking, unlawfully loud noise, among other items listed.  This ordinance also authorizes police officers to order people to disperse from a social gathering that meets one of eleven conditions cited in the ordinance.