July 15, 2008
WDSU
News Video
July 2, 2008
Blight Hearing Results
Hello everyone
Thanks to all who attended the hearing today and who submitted
written statements. It made a difference! Following are the
results:
5848 Catina: presented signed contract for demolition. Owner
fined $500 + $75 court costs. If not demo'd in 30 days, $100/day
6333 Louis XIV: guilty of blight and public nuisance. Fined $500
+ $75 court costs. If not compliant (including gutting) in 30
days, $100/day
5845/47 Catina: owner presented evidence of beginning repair.
Found guilty of blight and public nuisance. Fined $500 + $75
court costs. Siding must be replaced
and windows secure within 30days or $100/day fine to ensue
5902 Catina: guilty of blight and public nuisance. $500 + $75
court costs. Must be completely gutted, secure and yard clean
within 30days or $200/day
6001 Colbert: guilty of blight and public nuisance. $500 + $75
court costs. Must be compliant (or sold) within 60 days or
$250/day fine
The following properties had no defendant appear. We were still
allowed to read our statements into the record and present
photos. Judgments made accordingly
5820 Louis XIV: guilty of blight and public nuisance. $500 + $75
court costs. $100/day if not compliant in 30 days
6015 Milne: guilty of blight and public nuisance. $500 + $75
court costs. $250/day after 30 days.
6140/42 Catina: Belongs to Road Home. Found guilty of blight and
public nuisance. Court cannot fine the State
As I understand it, with mounting fines, the property can be
seized by the city and sold at auction.
My personal findings after witnessing the proceedings and
testifying are that YOU MATTER! If the residents who live around
these properties to not represent themselves via written
statements or attending, the fines are not as high. YOU MAKE AN
IMPACT. As future properties come up for hearing, please take
the time to get involved.
Again, many thanks to those who did!
Sharon
What we have been working towards for months has finally come to
pass
The adjudication hearings are back on the City website
If you go to
www.cityofno.com, click adjudication docket on right hand
side of home page, then click Tuesday July 8 9:15, you will
find 80 LV hearings.
Please check them out and see if there are any that you want to
comment on
Lakeview only had one property on the docket.
The property owner did not show up, but a neighbor had a
prepared statement and pictures they had taken this morning of
the property
The Judge gave the maximum fine of $500 plus the Hearing Fee of
$75 and ordered that the property be cleaned up by the City at
the homeowners cost and the police be present. This is to take
place within 2 weeks
This is a real step forward for us in LV with the Blight Fight
Please go to the City website and download the list of
properties to be heard on July 8th and see if you have info
about any of the properties and contact the LCIA so we can
include it when we go to the hearings
We are fighting Blight on several fronts, the LCIA signs with
the phone # to call in if you know the owner of blighted
property, letters are going to be sent to property owners not in
compliance and now the Adjudication Hearings with the new rules
set forth by Ordinance 28
N.O. City Council passes tougher blight rules
by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
The New Orleans City Council passed a new ordinance Thursday in an effort to put blighted properties back into commerce more efficiently and provide stricter building code enforcement, including fines of as much as $500 a day for failure to fix eyesores.
In addition to passing a 58-page amendment to the city code, the council passed an ordinance giving itself a more prominent role in seizing blighted properties and moving them through to sheriff's sales.
The ordinance, proposed by Mayor Ray Nagin's Office of Recovery and Development Administration, beefs up the code enforcement process and creates a case management structure that officials hope will turn over unkempt, unoccupied properties to those who will maintain and redevelop them.
It consolidates health and code enforcement procedures and gives the city more authority to go onto private property, perform maintenance and charge the owner. It also establishes a fund to put collected fines into future blight reduction work and applies blight standards to commercial and government-owned properties.
Also, the new code puts more of an onus on landowners to prove wrong city inspectors' judgments that their properties represent a public nuisance. The city hopes to clear up problems with about 1,700 blighted and nuisance properties, identified since Hurricane Katrina, that have been through a city adjudication process. Officials will use such tools as sheriff's sales, cluster redevelopment plans, the Lot Next Door purchase program and legal agreements with derelict owners.
The city's Finance Department tracks properties that had blight or public nuisance judgments against them before the flood. Those properties could number several thousand, according to Councilwoman Stacy Head's office.
The process of seizing abandoned properties stalled in September, with the recovery office complaining about a lack of staff. Two blighted properties recently moved through to sheriff's sales, and earlier this month, Nagin's aides said the city would be able to handle as many as 500 a month within the next few months.
Jeff Thomas, special assistant in the Office of Recovery Management, assured the council that the ordinance gives the city administration all the structure and authority it needs to move blighted properties through the pipeline.
"With this, we're up and running," Thomas told the council.
The ordinance explains the owners' duty to maintain their properties, whether private homes, government-owned buildings or commercial properties. The ordinance also includes rules for gutting and maintaining properties affected by future disasters, allowing owners six months from the time they can return to get a renovation permit and a year after that to finish rebuilding.
As before, owners will have due process, enforcement hearings and court appeals to challenge any findings against them.
But a separate ordinance by Head challenged the administration's plan, which allowed the council to make only non-binding recommendations about the fate of specific blighted properties. Head's legislation sought instead to give the City Council the power to identify properties for seizure and to direct the city attorney to include them in sheriff's sales.
Head grew irate when City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields informed her that the city charter's separation of executive and legislative powers prevented the council from forcing her to take a certain legal action. Head said she thought all parties had agreed upon the wording of the ordinance.
"This is the most bad faith I've ever seen in my life," Head said.
Council President Arnie Fielkow offered a compromise to which the rest of the council agreed, one that essentially lets the City Council bypass the recovery office's case management process and highlight certain properties for the city attorney, but without forcing the administration to act. Also, Head agreed to let the additional ordinance lapse on July 31, as long as recovery management officials can show that their case management system is moving properties through to sheriff's sales.
Although Head's ordinance only slightly altered the process, and gave the executive branch the same ultimate authority to seize properties, both Thomas and Head came away saying they got exactly what they wanted.
David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3322.