City Council eases the gutting law

Four days before the Aug. 29 deadline that the City Council set in April for New Orleans homeowners to clean, gut and board up their flood-damaged homes, the council voted 7-0 Friday for a new ordinance that keeps the deadline nominally in place but in effect gives all owners several more weeks or even months to take care of their homes.

The revised law, which had the support of Mayor Ray Nagin's administration, spells out in much more detail than before the procedures to be followed in enforcing the deadline and the legal protections for homeowners.

The council also voted to exempt the entire Lower 9th Ward from the deadline, adding the Holy Cross section to the large section of the neighborhood that it had voted in May to make eligible for automatic hardship exemptions. The Lower 9th Ward, one of the neighborhoods most damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, was the last part of the city to be reopened to residents. Parts of it still do not have basic services.

Community activists have been pressing the council for many weeks to rescind or postpone the gutting deadline, saying many residents still are not back in the city or have not yet received insurance settlements or state grants they need to pay to have their homes cleaned and gutted.

But the council refused to make any substantive changes in the law until Friday, apparently hoping to pressure as many homeowners as possible to clean up their properties in the face of a deadline and threat that the city might seize and demolish the buildings if no action was taken.

Although the original law was passed before four of the council's current members took office, several defended its purpose Friday, saying that ridding New Orleans of blighted, foul-smelling and environmentally hazardous buildings is important to the city's recovery.

The new version of the gutting law, which was not made public until Friday's meeting and was approved under an emergency procedure letting the council vote on an ordinance the same day it is introduced, lays out this procedure for enforcing the deadline:

Starting Tuesday, the first anniversary of Katrina, the city "may begin the inspection process" and start mailing notices to owners that their buildings are in violation of various provisions of the city's rules on maintaining buildings, including the Aug. 29 deadline.

The notice will give the owner 30 days to "bring this property into full compliance by undertaking mold remediation, cleaning, gutting and properly securing the premises, and removing all public nuisances and/or blight violations."

The notice also will include a list of 19 community groups and agencies that offer free or low-cost gutting services to those who qualify. Most of the groups have waiting lists that are three or more months long, but at least one group, Catholic Charities' Operation Helping Hands, said this week it is still accepting applications. It can be reached at (504) 895-5439. The group said it is seeking volunteers to help with the work.

After 30 days, the property will be reinspected. If it is still in violation, a second notice will be mailed and posted on the property. It will inform the owner of the date and place of a hearing and warn that if the problems are not corrected, the city "has the right to enter private property, gut and remediate the property and put a lien on it requiring the property owner to reimburse the city for the costs," plus other penalties.

At the hearing before an administrative hearing officer, an owner can ask for a hardship exemption. "Acceptable reasons for a hardship exemption, which shall be liberally construed," the law says, will include that the owner can show he has made arrangements for demolition or remediation but the contractor has not gotten around to his property, or that the owner has signed up with a nonprofit agency that has yet to do the job. In either case, "a reasonable grace period of 60 days" will be allowed.

An owner also will be exempt if he has applied to the city to voluntarily demolish the building.

The hearing officer may find the owner in compliance with or in violation of the law, or may give him additional time to comply because of hardship. If the owner is found in violation, the property can be ordered demolished. But even then, the owner will have 30 days to appeal the judgment to Civil District Court.

Nagin said several weeks ago that he intends to apply the law in a roughly west-to-east fashion, starting in council districts A and B and moving on to C, D and E.

The council made one last-minute change in the law. As introduced by Councilmen Oliver Thomas and Arnie Fielkow, it said the city "shall begin the inspection process" Tuesday. At the urging of Councilman James Carter, it voted to change "shall" to "may." City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields said the change would have little practical effect.

Fielkow said the revised law "creates certainty for all citizens" about the procedures to be followed, addresses "valid procedural concerns" raised by critics of the earlier law, "allows for a lot of due process and a lot of hardship protection," and will "keep the city moving forward."

But some community activists continued to criticize the idea of setting a deadline, saying the city did nothing about thousands of blighted properties for years, yet suddenly decided to crack down after Katrina drove hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes. "How fair is that?" Vanessa Gueringer asked.

"Progress shouldn't be about your taking someone else's home," Gwendolyn Adams said.

Others said they appreciated the exemption for the Lower 9th Ward but said residents of many other neighborhoods need the same consideration. "Connect the deadline to the allocation of resources," Patricia Jones said.

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis said she agreed that the city hasn't provided the necessary resources to help nonprofit groups offering gutting services.

Councilwoman Shelley Midura said the revised law "protects everyone's rights while moving the city forward."

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