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Lancaster outlines stronger vacant‑property rules and a $15,000 YardSmart grant for inner‑city homeowners
Summary
City staff described a new vacant commercial property ordinance (9.55) requiring registration and inspections, and launched YardSmart Lancaster, a drought‑resilient front‑yard grant up to $15,000, targeting 8–10 inner‑core homes by July; staff said vacancy data is still being gathered.
Hai Nguyen, a Community Development staffer, introduced the community preservation presentation and said staff would reintroduce the department’s code‑enforcement and commercial vacancy efforts. "We'd like to present a quick reintroduction to the community development department," he said, and introduced Justin Hilliman, the new Community Preservation manager.
Justin Hilliman framed the unit’s role as protecting public health and safety through code enforcement and parking programs. He provided 2025 activity figures, saying the team condemned "over 4,000 pounds of potentially hazardous food" from illegal street vendors, impounded 10 vendor vehicles, issued "over 37,000 parking citations," towed more than 410 vehicles, and received 2,764 code‑enforcement cases, closing 1,922 of them.
Nicole Jones, senior analyst for Community Development,…
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