Mothball Public Meeting

[sheclown]

I just returned from the public meeting on mothballing put on by the condemned structures subcommittee of the HPC.  Brenda and I represented Springfield at the meeting.  It was a chance to go through the nuts and bolts of the legislation especially as it pertains to decisions and rules that the commissioners will have to make regarding mothball steps.

Basically it is all the same things we have discussed over and over.  How to board windows, what to do about the doors, the crawl space, the utilities.  How to handle leaky roofs and whether or not to require sod to be planted.

Code enforcement showed up and answered some practical questions about lawn maintenance, the pros and cons of leaving the water on and etc.

At the end the ideas and decisions were voted on by the subcommittee who will turn them over to the HPC for full commissioners vote.

I will write more about the particulars of the nuts and bolts if anyone is interested.

[sheclown]

At the end of the meeting, Brenda and I talked to Jennifer Mansfield, chair of the condemned structures subcommittee.  Commissioner Mansfield is as concerned as we are about those at-risk properties which will not be helped by the mothballing legislation.  She has been speaking to the city and to organizations about foreclosing on liens to take the property.  At this point, she feels that the city's largest concern about taking is that is doesn't want to "hold" the properties and an organization which could take a group of them would ease the city's mind.  She also said that they city is more likely to foreclose on a block of properties rather than just single ones.

We talked to her about the auction in the late 90s and how successful that was.  The city had problems with this auction, but that was only because it got into the rehab biz with contractor selections and rehab financing.  Other cities have auctioned properties off for a dollar to urban pioneers who will live in the houses (or move in ASAP) and these cities have not gotten into the rehab part of the equation.

Very positive night tonight.  We are moving forward.

[iloveionia]

It is great that while mothballing is moving forward, additional measures are being discussed beyond this intervention.  Knodding my head in appreciation about the positive conversation to save our houses.

[uptowngirl]

I wish the city would take these vacant overgrown lots and sell them. I have tried to buy two or three around me but no one wants to sell, mostly because they owe demo liens on the lots and the lots are not worth much now. I am sick of huge jungles surrounding my house, those lots could be put to better use until such time as the market picks up and people start building.....

[avs]

The city would like an organization to auction the properties off to sheclown?  So then the organization re-sells them cheap or rehabs them?  Seems kind of silly, why not  just auction them off cheap directly to someone to rehab them?

I agree about the lots too - they should be seized and auctioned off too to people/organizations who will care for them.

[sheclown]

great point about the vacant lots.

Let's find a city which recently went through the auctioning process. 

The auction in the 90s really helped Springfield.

[sheclown]

Schellingburg wanted the HPC to reach a compromise on the sunset clause for mothballing.  However, this group of preservation commissioners are not willing to give up what the city worked so hard to give them...an effective and powerful way to save some houses.

Hooray for HPC!! Stand tall and protect the houses!!!