BIDDEFORD — Jeanne Jackson, who owns a six-unit apartment building on Sullivan Street, has lost two good tenants in recent months because of constant disturbances at a nearby property.

“I have tenants who can’t put up with it anymore and they’re leaving,” Jackson said. “It’s a problem.”

She hopes the problem will be curbed by a proposed disorderly-housing ordinance that she helped write with other landlords and city officials.

Under the proposed ordinance, the city would issue notices to landlords after two calls for police in a 60-day period. More than three police responses within 60 days would get a property designated a “disorderly house.”

Offenses could be anything that poses a threat to public health, convenience, welfare or safety and may create a public nuisance — from loud music or drug activity to code violations.

The landlord would have to meet with city officials to write a remediation agreement, and could be fined $100 to $2,500.

Jackson, who owns 14 units in Old Orchard Beach and Saco, has spent the past two years renovating the previously condemned building on Sullivan Street with her husband. She said she has seen loud fights, people congregating in the area, public drinking and drug deals.

“It’s not the majority of buildings, but if you have two or three in a neighborhood, they disrupt the whole neighborhood,” Jackson said.

Portland’s neighborhood prosecutor, Trish McAllister, met with Biddeford landlords and city officials as they worked on the measure to discuss a similar ordinance in Portland.

“The concept of it is essentially to hold landlords responsible for activities going on in their properties. A lot of these problems come about when the landlords aren’t living there,” McAllister said.

She said that when a property is identified as disorderly, she often works with the landlord or property manager to evict “problem tenants” and establish a screening process for future tenants. Some landlords file criminal-trespass paperwork, authorizing police to ask guests to leave the properties and arrest any who do not.

Last year, McAllister said, the city brought a landlord who was not complying with the ordinance to court over a property on Oxford Street. The result has been a significant decrease in calls, she said, from 27 in May of 2010 to six this May.

Biddeford’s community development coordinator, Linda Hardacker, said the proposed ordinance has been driven by property owners who want to encourage everyone to be a good neighbor. She hopes the ordinance will support efforts to revitalize neighborhoods downtown, such as areas on South, Bacon and Sullivan streets.

“It’s not to put someone on the hot seat who is a good landlord with one difficult tenant, but for the landlords who don’t care about who they rent to, the neighborhood or Biddeford,” Hardacker said.

The committee that is drafting the ordinance has invited members of the city’s Policy Committee to a meeting next week to discuss and refine the measure, Hardacker said. She expects the Policy Committee will review the ordinance in August and then send it to the City Council.

Staff Writer Emma Bouthillette can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

ebouthillette@pressherald.com