Local Government

WATCH: Town Council discusses blighted, derelict, vacant and poorly maintained buildings

Published

8 years ago

July 17, 2018

Town Council Work Session July 16, 2018. Photo/Video by Mike McCool, Royal Examiner

Royal Examiner’s cameras were there to capture Monday’s (July 16) Front Royal Town Council work session, at which several items were discussed. The first item on the agenda was what to do with blighted, derelict, vacant and poorly maintained buildings.

SUMMARY: On June 19, 2018, Jeremy F. Camp, the Town’s Director of Planning and Zoning and Town Manager Joe Waltz, met with the Winchester City Attorney, Anthony C. Williams, and the City of Winchester Director of Zoning & Inspections, Aaron M. Grisdale, CZA, to discuss and learn firsthand the City of Winchester’s seemingly successful efforts to deal with blighted, derelict, vacant and poorly maintained buildings and structures.

What the City officials told them may not be what the Town may want to take upon themselves at this time, but it is what does work well for the City of Winchester. According to the City officials, Winchester’s tools include: The Property Maintenance and Rental Inspection Program
Codes, the lynchpins of their blight remediation efforts; a tax abatement program; a vacant building registration program; and graffiti abatement program.

Winchester uses a Community Resources Team, consisting of its Planning & Zoning, Police, Parks & Recreation, and, Public Works Departments, its public schools, its EDA, and its Commissioner of the Revenue, which met periodically, to cross train each other and to tackle blight, neighborhood instability, and troubled youth.

As Town Council may recall, due to the recent Charter amendments the Town has received, the Town now has all authorities any and all cities, counties and towns in the Commonwealth have to address blighted and derelict buildings and structures.

BUDGET/FUNDING: Previously addressed to a large extent when Town Council considered the Property Maintenance and Rental District Codes. Also addressed to some extent in the attachments to the Report are names of private Code inspectors the Town might consider contracting to perform Code inspections for the Town.

STAFF RECOMMENDATION: When Town budget constraints allow, the Town may well want to consider following the path Winchester has followed to address blighted, derelict, vacant and/or poorly maintained buildings and structures. The City of Winchester appears to have a successful program that utilizes virtually all of the statutory tools allowed by the Code of Virginia.