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Hagerstown staff outline vacancy‑determination process and seek council authority to draft nuisance abatement ordinance
Summary
Neighborhood Services Manager Paul Folke described how the city identifies vacant structures, current exemptions, monitoring workload and proposed nuisance/abatement authority; council members asked for clearer thresholds and asked staff to return with options including contractor models for securing properties.
City staff on March 18 walked the mayor and city council through the municipal vacant‑property licensing program, explained how the city determines vacancy and asked the council to authorize legal work on a nuisance/vacant‑structure abatement ordinance.
Neighborhood Services Manager Paul Folke said the city maintains a vacancy‑licensing program that currently lists 313 vacant properties, including 19 vacant storefronts in the CCMU zone and 12 entire structures vacant in that district. He described how properties qualify for the program (vacant six months, in active foreclosure, or condemned as an entire structure for 30 days) and listed common exemptions such as active sale listings or cases with active building permits.
Folke said the city monitors roughly 93 additional properties that do not currently meet registration thresholds but are under observation because of reported inactivity. He described typical indicators of vacancy (low water usage over three consecutive quarters, mail piling up, lack of property maintenance) and said the city receives key referrals from customer service, the fire marshal and the police department.
On remedies, Folke explained challenges when properties are abandoned, owned by deceased owners or held by banks unwilling to take title. He asked council to authorize staff and legal counsel to draft a nuisance abatement ordinance that could include powers such as securing structures, erecting fences to prevent entry, graffiti removal and removal of utilities in defined circumstances. "This would actually address some of these concerns that the citizens bring forward that we could address," Folke said.
Councilmembers asked about how the city determines vacancy by water use and whether the monitoring workload is sustainable. Folke said the water trigger is three consecutive quarters with per‑day use under one gallon (a conservative test) and that monitoring consumes substantial staff time; the customer‑service weekly report alone can take days to review. Several councilmembers urged staff to return with options that include threshold criteria, estimated costs and potential private contractors to secure and deter entry at repeat problem properties. Folke said he will return in one to two months with options and cost estimates.
