Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Code Enforcement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
MEDC members press for proactive steps on blighted and vacant properties; ask staff to coordinate outreach and ordinance review
Summary
Board members urged more proactive outreach, potential rezoning and ordinance updates to address blighted and vacant properties; MEDC directed staff to draft an informational flyer and to ask city council to consider vacant-building ordinances and enforcement options.
Board members used July 15’s meeting to press for more proactive steps to address neglected, vacant and substandard properties in and around downtown Montgomery. Several members said dilapidated properties near areas targeted for investment reduce the effectiveness of MEDC-funded projects and discourage reinvestment.
Speakers proposed a mix of outreach and regulatory options: sending informational letters to property owners explaining compliance expectations, developing a list of code-based improvements that would bring properties to standard, exploring targeted demolition funding where properties are uninhabitable, and offering rezoning as an incentive in appropriate locations. Board members also discussed the practical challenge that some parcels are fractionally owned and that owners frequently lack resources to repair structures.
The board asked staff to prepare initial outreach materials — described on the record as a flyer or letter — and to work with city staff to raise the issue with the city council. Members suggested the council consider ordinances that register and classify vacant buildings or address substandard structures; staff said the city’s building official could prepare draft language based on other cities’ best practices.
No formal ordinance was adopted at the meeting; board members asked staff to pursue outreach and to coordinate with the city council and building official for potential ordinance drafting and enforcement steps. A board member offered to help with outreach and another said MEDC could identify incentives or programs to encourage reinvestment.
