QuoteJacksonville exploring foreclosure of blighted property; Moncrief Road store, houses early targets
Posted: September 12, 2014 - 6:30pm | Updated: September 12, 2014 - 11:18pm
BJ's Grocery and the adjoining row of duplex houses on Moncrief Road at the intersection with 13th Street have been targeted by the city in its efforts to clean up blight around Jacksonville. The location has been the scene of shootings. .
By Steve Patterson
Jacksonville officials trying to curb property neglect and neighborhood blight are making plans to foreclose on some buildings over unpaid fines for code violations.
Regulatory Compliance Director Kim Scott asked a city lawyer last month to begin foreclosure suits on several structures cited as part of a cleanup effort around 13th Street and Moncrief Road north of downtown.
Taking the land might help cure problems that have lingered for years, argued one City Council member who said drug dealers hang around the corner.
"That corner has killed more people through drugs and criminal activity than anybody walking around with a gun. ... It has been a disgrace and a shame," said Councilwoman Denise Lee, who chairs a committee on blight that has focused attention on the corner.
A 6-year-old girl was wounded last month during a drive-by shooting outside a row of seven houses owned by Fred Clark, who runs a corner store, B J's Grocery. A man was shot and killed on a porch in the same row of houses in 2011.
Although no one has said Clark had a role in the shootings, Lee argued the buildings' condition invites problems. One unit is condemned, and some windows are boarded.
"If the owner of those homes so cared about them, he would clean it up," Lee said. "Since he hasn't cleaned it up, it's up to the government to do it."
A spreadsheet presented recently to Lee's committee listed more than $100,000 in fines imposed since 2008 against properties Clark owned.
No suit has been filed and Clark said the first he heard about foreclosure was when a reporter asked him about it this week. He said Lee has described his property inaccurately and caused police to come to his door when he wasn't doing anything illegal.
"She tells the sheriff I have 20 dudes standing outside my door," Clark said, adding police haven't found anything wrong. Sheriff's Office Chief Pat Ivey told Lee's committee in April he had talked to Clark about ways he could build up a law-abiding customer base.
Clark stressed Friday that he wasn't breaking the law, but said he didn't want to talk further with a reporter. While the reporter spoke with Clark, a city inspector walked in and waited to get Clark's attention.
Lee said foreclosure could be used against other landowners in the same neighborhood. She said she wasn't eager to take anyone's property but felt it was for the public good.
State law lets the city foreclose to settle debts, and between 1997 and 2004 it was done regularly to hand off property to a nonprofit that could use it for affordable housing, said Aleizha Batson, a city spokeswoman.
That stopped mostly because the nonprofit, Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, had trouble handling the flow of property it was receiving, Batson said.
While it's not used often now, the city has two foreclosures pending on property on Church Street and another on 21st Street, she said. It also took a landmark site, the jaguar-painted Bostwick Building downtown, which the city then sold in July to businessman Jacques Klempf as a restaurant site.
The council also voted this week to have city attorneys foreclose on an Arlington Expressway auto repair shop that had racked up $41,000 in code fines and another $404,000 in other penalties.
Separate from discussion about the Moncrief Road area, Councilman Warren Jones said he expects to recommend that the city pursue foreclosure instead of a demolition process outlined by a pending bill for handling abandoned homes that have been vacant, boarded and without utilities for at least two years.
"This process would take away the argument that all we want to do is destroy. That's not our first option," said Jones, who chairs a subcommittee on city policy for historic structures.
Historic preservation advocates had raised concerns about the current legislation, bill 2014-427, noting language in it exempting historic homes doesn't define them clearly.
Preservationists have also said the bill could leave buildings marked for demolition unless they get very fast city approvals for a stopgap process of stabilizing and securing historic buildings called mothballing.
But residents of some older, crime-troubled neighborhoods have said vacant, overgrown buildings are already magnets for vagrants.
Jones said his idea is meant to be address concerns of both groups.
"You have those individuals who want to see it torn down. You have those individuals who believe if a house is structurally sound, it should be restored. I think this strikes a good balance," Jones said.
"I mean, you've still got to tear down some of them, because some are not salvageable. But those that can be salvaged and renovated at a reasonable cost, we need to move forward."
In July, Councilman Bill Gulliford convened dozens of neighborhood activists and people from for-profit and nonprofit companies to start discussions about an umbrella group to coordinate putting abandoned homes back to use.
There might be 8,000 abandoned homes in town, Gulliford said this week, and it's in the city's interest to see a coordinated effort to get them back into use.
A nascent nonprofit, the Jacksonville Home Ownership Property Exchange, called Jax HOPE, has had a pair of board meetings since then and will talk next month with a national organization about a potential ongoing relationship, said Colin Bingham, Jax HOPE's chairman.
Bingham said he found the idea behind Jones' approach encouraging, saying that among abandoned buildings, "there are a very high percentage of them that could be rehabbed and put back into use."
Jones said details about his recommendation, such as the number of liens or the dollar amount that could trigger foreclosure suits, still have to be resolved. He said either for-profit or nonprofit companies might be interested in taking over some properties but he wants the organizations screened to be sure the city isn't handing off real estate to a slumlord.
Steve Patterson: (904) 359-426
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-09-12/story/jacksonville-exploring-foreclosure-blighted-property-moncrief-road-store#.VBQZ1Y94hLs.facebook#ixzz3DC3ChC3x
Hopefully, something good comes out of all of this.
I applaud CM Jones for finding a balance between protecting our historic properties (not all historic properties are located in a historic district -- many of them are in Durkeeville and East Jacksonville) and dealing with blight. Removing properties from non-responsive owners is MUCH better than demolishing them. The JAXHOPE organization sounds promising.
That being said, citizens need to keep an eye on the process. Increasing code enforcement's power can lead to increasing misuse of the power -- clearly the city lacks the capacity to moderate itself -- as CM Lumb often says "when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Hopefully, there will be a mechanism in place to watch over the process of foreclosure.
Getting input from the various CPACs on pending foreclosure cases in their district would be a wise and fairly effortless move on the city's part.
Thank you COJ for exploring the tougher (and wiser, and more sustainable) alternatives.
Getting input from the CPACs would be good. The problem is getting the info to them. Would need to set up a process to send the pending foreclosures to the CPACs, like zoning is now.
Quote from: Charles Hunter on September 13, 2014, 09:17:08 AM
Getting input from the CPACs would be good. The problem is getting the info to them. Would need to set up a process to send the pending foreclosures to the CPACs, like zoning is now.
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking.
Quote from: thelakelander on September 13, 2014, 08:12:24 AM
Hopefully, something good comes out of all of this.
There's some really promising work being done on this. Colin has the experience & initiative to make it happen.
Good, positive feedback from council members. Kudos to them and the active participants here and elsewhere whose discussions have spawned this new and creative thinking.
Preserve, protect and reuse valuable properties - in the Historic districts and elsewhere.