Task force to uphold home-gutting rules
City urges owners to act before Aug. 29 deadline

At a news conference in Nagin's office, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields said the mayor's new "Good Neighbor Plan" is a proactive measure to educate citizens about what constitutes a public nuisance, what options the owners of such properties have, and what assistance is available to them.

Moses-Fields said a task force of city officials and neighborhood, nonprofit and faith-based groups has been assembled to walk neighborhoods flooded by last year's hurricanes and post notices on buildings that appear to need remediation, reminding owners of the deadline set by an ordinance the City Council passed in April. The council later voted to exempt much of the Lower 9th Ward from the deadline.

Owners of flooded properties have three options, Moses-Fields said: to gut, remediate and board up their building; to renovate or rebuild it; or to demolish it.

If an owner does not take action, the building will be declared a public nuisance "and shall be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal," the ordinance says.

Property owners will be given a list of private organizations that provide gutting services, Moses-Fields said. She did not say whether the list will include only groups offering free or low-cost gutting or whether it also will include regular contractors.

If owners don't take corrective measures after the initial warning, the city will send out notices giving them 10 days to take action or face the prospect that the city will seize and gut or demolish their buildings, Moses-Fields said.

The city will begin enforcing the gutting ordinance in City Council Districts A and B, then move on to Districts C, D and finally E, Moses-Fields said.

At the same time, city officials will seek to enforce other public nuisance ordinances, moving against owners whose properties have liens assessed against them for uncut grass, health violations and the like.

Online reporting system

Starting Monday, the city will establish an electronic database through its Web site, www.cityofno.com, on which individual residents, neighborhood groups and others can post the addresses of buildings that appear to be potential public nuisances or in imminent danger of collapse. The city then will verify the condition of the properties and, if warranted, notify the owners to take action.

Former Councilman Jay Batt, the sponsor of the gutting ordinance, said in April that he feared that ravaged, mold-infested houses, especially if not boarded up, could become "environmental biohazards" that would slow the recovery of whole neighborhoods by discouraging nearby owners from moving back or making repairs.

The ordinance says "every owner of a dwelling or dwelling unit shall be responsible for mold remediation, cleaning, gutting and properly securing the premises of all properties" damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "in a manner so as to render the premises environmentally sound and not open to the public."

The owner "shall take appropriate measures to complete this work as soon as possible, but no later than Aug. 29, 2006," the ordinance says.

In passing the law, the council said a committee would be established "to review hardship cases and possible exceptions." When notices are sent to owners alerting them that their property is being considered for designation as a public nuisance, they must be informed of the appeal process, the law says.

Mayoral reservations

Nagin expressed reservations about the ordinance and chose not to sign it, letting it become law without his signature.

He said in late June that the city would "try to enforce" the law, but he promised to respect property owners' rights. He said he would be especially sensitive to senior citizens, who may face special difficulties trying to clean up their property, and would concentrate first on sections of the city west of the Industrial Canal.

He also said he expected the city to face court challenges when it tries to gain access to flooded properties, similar to the resistance it faced several months ago when trying to demolish homes that had floated onto public roads. The mayor did not speak to those issues Wednesday.

The council voted in May to set aside the Aug. 29 deadline for much of the Lower 9th Ward. It passed an ordinance proposed by Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis declaring that all owner-occupied homes, plus all "residential rental property" owned by people 65 or older, in about two-thirds of the Lower 9th Ward "shall be deemed to be hardship cases" and thus "eligible for exceptions to the remediation requirements" imposed by the April law.

The affected section is bounded by St. Claude Avenue, the Industrial Canal, Florida Avenue and the St. Bernard Parish line. The rest of the neighborhood, between St. Claude and the river, was not as badly devastated by floodwaters as the part north of St. Claude.

New Orleans Blight Update