The City of Chula Vista CA (91910-15,21) recently passed an ordinance requiring the registration of vacant and abandoned properties.

The following report by the San Diego Union Tribune discusses the new ordinance and its requirements.

City of Chula Vista CA Blight Ordinance

It's easy to spot the abandoned homes that lenders seized from cash-strapped owners in Chula Vista. Look for a dried-up front lawn, broken windows and – the dead giveaway – a green, swamplike swimming pool.

In the South Bay city, officials say that foreclosures have led to more than 700 empty homes and even more unhappy neighbors.

To keep property values from dropping, Chula Vista adopted a program last week that forces lenders to maintain homes they seize and to register the abandoned properties with the city. Modeled on initiatives in Chicago and Detroit, the program will require lenders to hire local property management firms to prevent vacant homes from becoming neglected.

The ordinance will take effect in October. The program will be paid for by a $70 fee charged to title holders when they register an abandoned property with the city.

The rules kick in with the first notice of default. At that point, a lender must check to see whether anyone is living in the home. If not, it must hire a property management firm to prevent any sign of disrepair from popping up, said Doug Leeper, the city's code enforcement manager.

Leeper said lenders can be held accountable for a home even before the foreclosure is complete because the property is security for the loan.

The cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Jose require registration of abandoned homes, but only after code violations are reported, he said.

“The lenders have a responsibility to be a good neighbor,” Leeper said. “Our program puts responsibility back on the lender earlier than those programs do.”

Leeper estimates that 700 to 800 homes in the city are vacant from among nearly 3,000 “distressed” properties with records of foreclosure, default, tax liens or bankruptcy.

Chula Vista is one of the fastest-growing cities in San Diego County. From 2001 through 2005, the city issued 8,919 permits for new single-family homes. Only 6,779 permits were issued in the previous five years.

The building boom coincided with an increase in the use of adjustable-interest loans. As homeowners' payments increased, some couldn't keep up.

Art DeFord lives next to a home on Hilltop Drive that went through a foreclosure and has been vacant since April. He said the home was “really nice” before the lender took it over.

“Now, the yard's a wreck and the pool, which butts up to my back yard, is a cesspool, totally green,” he said.

Four miles away, former City Councilman Leonard Moore lives next to an abandoned house on El Capitan Drive. Grass and weeds in the front yard are knee high, an eyesore that would make it difficult to sell nearby homes.

“If people don't like the way a street looks, they'll skip it,” he said.

Chula Vista Councilman John McCann opposed the ordinance, saying the program isn't needed because the city already has authority to tackle code violations.

But Mayor Cheryl Cox said the program is “a new tool” that will protect neighborhoods.

To view the online article, please click here.

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