A recent report discusses the City of Warren MI (48088-93,97) City Council creating an ordinance requiring owners to register their vacant property, along with the creation of Department of Property Maintenance to address blight.

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City of Warren MI
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Warren ordinance targets eyesore vacant properties to reduce blight
City inspector will visit empty homes

Warren's ongoing war on blight has opened a second front -- homes that have become dilapidated while sitting vacant.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to create the ordinance, which would require owners to register their property as vacant within 30 days of the resident moving out. The owner would have to pay for a city inspector to walk through the home every 30 days until the home is reoccupied.

Council President Jim Fouts suggested creating the ordinance after he received complaints from several residents in the 36000 block of Roan, where two vacant homes were falling into disrepair. Neighbors complained of patches of broken concrete and weeds that were climbing as high as the home's windows.

"Nothing was done about this for years," Dick Wagner, who lives on Roan and supported the creation of the ordinance, said Wednesday. "It just disrupts the neighborhood. It doesn't look good on the rest of the neighborhood."

Fouts wants property owners -- particularly landlords of rental homes -- to be more active in upkeep to keep neighborhoods clean and protect property values.

"This would hopefully discourage an owner from holding on to a vacant property," Fouts said Tuesday.

Councilwoman Mindy Moore said the two homes on Roan have been cited for blight violations by the Department of Property Maintenance and the respective owners will have a hearing on the matter next month. Each of the properties on Roan has been assessed $500 in fines for blight violations, Moore said.

Blight has become a central topic in Warren in the past year. In March, the council created the Department of Property Maintenance, which includes inspectors scouring the city for blight violations.

Residents get fines of $150 while commercial properties can get $250 tickets. Property owners have 10 days to come into compliance with city ordinances before they are ordered to pay the fine.

Moore and City Attorney George Constance said that existing laws cover most of the issues that would be addressed by an ordinance governing vacant homes.

"What we're after is vacant homes that are run down," Constance said. "We have the ordinances on the book to do that."

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