LYNN — City officials are weighing changes to an ordinance that would allow them to crack down on abandoned, vacant or foreclosed commercial properties that have become blights on the community.
The City Council passed an ordinance in 2009 regulating the maintenance of abandoned and foreclosed residential and commercial properties, but somewhere in the process, commercial properties got dropped, according to Michael Donovan, the city’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD) chief.
Donovan said the city uses the ordinance to regulate residential properties every day, but has no ability to go in and clean up abandoned, vacant or foreclosed commercial properties.
He recommended to the City Council changes to, or a recodification of the existing ordinance, to include commercial properties, and increase the annual registration fee from $300 to $500, as those property owners are required to register with the city.
The council voted to set down a public hearing for the proposed ordinance changes, which Donovan said would likely be held in November.
Those abandoned, foreclosed or vacant commercial properties must be maintained, and if the property owner doesn’t maintain it, the ordinance, if revised, would allow the city to go in and clean them up. Vacant properties tend to attract squatters, Donovan said.
“It’s difficult to get these absentee owners to clean them up. We (would) clean them up and send them the bill,” Donovan said. “It’s just another tool in the toolbox … It’s something that will make the city a cleaner and safer place.”
According to the proposed ordinance, failure to maintain the commercial property is punishable by a fine up to $300 for each month the property is not maintained. The fine would be the same as the one enforced against residential properties.
The idea, Donovan said, is to make sure properties are maintained so they don’t become a problem. Without commercial properties included in the ordinance, he said it’s difficult for the city to go after owners, including banks and mortgage companies, unless officials use a myriad of ordinances, such as enforcing sanitary and building codes.
For instance, the former Anthony’s Hawthorne Restaurant downtown has been the center of attention since it closed in 2003. There have been numerous enforcement actions from the city against the Anthony Athanas Trust, which is listed as the property owner.
City Council President Darren Cyr said he would be in favor of adding commercial properties and other proposed changes to the existing ordinance.
“The ordinance itself has been in existence for about 10 years (and we) haven’t really put any changes to it,” Cyr said. “(There) have been some commercial properties that have been foreclosed on and haven’t been taken care of the way they should be.”
With the proposed change, Cyr said if a commercial property becomes foreclosed, the mortgage holder has to register that property with the city so that officials are aware of it. Right now, that’s not a requirement.
“There are some properties in the city that have been vacant for many years, that are just becoming dilapidated,” Cyr said. “Other than going out and making sure they’re safe, the city doesn’t have the resources to maintain the properties. This just gives us another tool.”
