Law for vacant eyesores'

BRUNSWICKA piece of legislation aimed at requiring the owners of abandoned properties to maintain properties according to the city's building codes remains deadlocked in a council committee.

The three members of council's building and building codes committee met last week to discuss the ordinance first proposed by the administration last month. That legislation, drafted in response to the growing list of commercial and residential vacancies in the city, would allow the city to inspect any vacant or abandoned property that falls into a state of disrepair.

Chief building official Roger Westfall told members of council that due to the state of the national economy and an ever-expanding list of foreclosures, he expects the city's problem to gets worse before they get better.

"Every day, we're finding homes in which the residents have just up and left for any of a number of reasons," Westfall said, noting there have been a handful of times this winter where city crews have discovered a vacant home simply by chance once the pipes burst after the utilities were disconnected.

"We would find water in the yards only to go in and discover a basement full of water. That's happened at least five times already this year."

To be on the front end of the problem, Westfall says he is hoping to pass the legislation that would allow the city to inspect both commercial and residential properties that have fallen into a state of disrepair.

The city would bill residential property owners $100 for this service and commercial property owners $250.

If after 30 days the owner has not paid the inspection fee, the legislation would also guarantee the city the right to take legal action and impose a lien on the property.

While committee chairman and Ward 4 Councilman Anthony Capretta calls the ordinance a "proactive approach" for the city to take with regard to vacancies, at-large Councilman Patrick McNamara says he opposes the ordinance because he doesn't see the city's number of vacancies as a problem....