Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, Sugar Land apartment complex owners may have to pay annual fees for the right to operate their rental properties.

Sugar Land City Council unanimously voted in favor of an ordinance creating the fee structure and regulations governing city inspections of apartment properties, similar to the city’s program covering single-family rental units. The multifamily ordinance must be approved on second reading at a future meeting to become law.

If approved, the measure will require apartment owners to pay an annual fee of $8 per rental unit. Sugar Land Community and Environmental Director Mike Goodrum told City Council members on Tuesday that the fee would equate to an annual cost of about $2,000 to $2,400 for the typical apartment complex in the city. Most of those complexes, he said, are owned by Gables Residential of Atlanta, Ga., which was consulted during creation of the new proposed policy.

The compliance teeth in the ordinance would stem from the fact that an apartment complex owner would have to have a valid annual city license in order to obtain city water service for the complex.

The ordinance calls for annual inspections of vacant apartment units. Since apartment complexes typically have somewhat rapid tenant turnover, city inspectors would annually inspect those units that are vacant on the day the inspector schedules a visit, Goodrum indicated. He added that if a complex has very few vacancies on the date of a scheduled annual inspection, the city might schedule and additional inspection in order to view more apartment units.

Another provision of the ordinance would allow tenants to call the city and request an inspection.

Goodrum said no staff will be needed for the program, because the city can use inspectors now on the job as a result of the already-in-place single-family rental inspection program.

City Councilman Russell Jones said about 1,700 single-family rental units now have licenses in Sugar Land, and asked Goodrum whether he believed that represented all such rental property in the city. Goodrum said the city “ultimately” projects that there should be 2,000 to 2,200 single-family rental properties licensed. He said more licenses are obtained as out-of-state owners try to get water turned on at their properties and then learn they must first pay the licensing fee.

Also under the proposed multifamily rental regulations, rented condos will be brought into the program. However, Goodrum said that because they typically have one tenant with little turnover, condos will, if the ordinance receives final council approval, be treated the same as single-family rental property.