Landlords and business owners whose Urbana properties are the site of recurring criminal activity may face tough licensing laws in the future.

Urbana Mayor Laurel Lunt Prussing is currently appointing a community task force to look at possible remedies to what she and other council members called a surge in crime over the past three years.

Alderwoman Lynne Barnes (D-7) presented police statistics from an area that encompassed her southeast Urbana ward. Numbers on reported crimes showed a net increase of about 38 percent since 2002.

“I kept hearing complaints from my constituents,” Barnes said. “They don’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods.”

Barnes said she heard from the Southeast Urbana Neighborhood Association that police have even warned residents against going out at night. The neighborhood group could not confirm this in time for this report.

Alderman Charlie Smyth (D-1) and Barnes along with Prussing noted that crime reports and calls for police service were concentrated around specific properties, either local businesses or large apartment complexes. They said the root of the problem was that some property owners failed to monitor the activities of those who rent from them or do business with them.

Negligent property owners are a longstanding frustration, said Smyth, whose ward overlaps with Campustown.

“For years, we have tried to work with the few landlords on campus who are the source of most of the problems,” Smyth said. “But 20 years later, the list of troublemakers is still the same.”

Prussing said that the issue must be tackled on three levels. First, law enforcement needs strengthening. In recent years, the city added three police officers to its force.

Second, neighborhoods should organize watches and safety meetings.

“That develops a stronger sense of community strength against the problem,” Prussing said.

Finally, there should be some kind of legal recourse. One possible ordinance could require landlords to be licensed under the condition they take appropriate action against recurring crime on their property.

“Leases could be drafted in such a way that tenants could be evicted for criminal activity,” Prussing said.

Prussing offered as a reference a licensing ordinance enacted by the Northwestern Chicago suburb of Schaumburg two years ago.

In addition to lease specifications, the ordinance requires landlords to attend an 8-hour training on how to prevent and respond to criminal activity on the part of their tenants. A landlord who does not comply with the ordinance risks his license being revoked.

Alderwoman Danielle Chynoweth (D-2) expressed concern that such an ordinance could be abused by landlords who wanted to kick their tenants out or by tenants who want to make trouble for their landlords.

The mayor said she understood the possible flaws with the Schaumburg ordinance but argued that concern for abuses should not paralyze the city from looking at some legal solutions.

“We need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to make neighborhoods safe for everyone,” Prussing said.

Public safety tops the list of priorities that the current council agreed to last month.

“It is the number one concern of our constituents,” Barnes said.

The task force to investigate possible safety solutions will be made up of landlords, tenants and business owners and will be represented by all seven Urbana wards, Prussing said.

“Without getting too huge, this task force will ensure everyone has a voice in the process,” Prussing said.

The members of the task force will hold neighborhood meetings in every quadrant of the city.