A subcommittee of the Derby Board of Aldermen wants the full board to begin foreclosing on the four most blighted properties in the city, including two on Derby Avenue.
The properties are:
245 Francis St.
196 Derby Ave.
189 Derby Ave.
105 Hawkins St.
Those properties were on the top of a “most blighted” list compiled by city officials earlier this year. Click here to read a previous Valley Indy story on the properties.
The move by the Board of Aldermen Community Relations subcommittee marks the first time the city has considered foreclosing due to blight.
“It’s a huge step forward for the City of Derby,” Alderman Ken Hughes said.
What’s Blight?
Blighted properties are properties that pose a threat to the health, safety and property values of neighbors. Two part-time city inspectors often receive complaints from neighbors about a given property, then observe the property to see if it is actually a problem.
The inspectors then send a series of correspondence to a property owner asking the owner to take care of the problem.
If the property owner does nothing, the inspectors recommend the property be added to the city’s blight list. The recommendation has to be approved by both an Aldermen subcommittee and the full board itself.
Once a property finally makes it to the blight list, the property owner faces fines of $100 per day.
The Targets
The four properties under consideration for foreclosure aren’t necessarily the most run down in the city. They are at the top of the blight list for a combination of length or time blighted, the condition of the property and the amount of money accumulated in fines.
The following Google map shows where the properties are in Derby, along with eight other “most blighted” properties. Article continues below.
View Derby’s Dirty Dozen in a larger map
The properties are at a point where the size of the blight lien is equal, or just about equal, to the value of the property, according to David Kopjanski, Derby’s building official and zoning officer.
The properties are all abandoned, Kopjanski said.
“None of these owners expressed any interest in keeping these properties, at all,” Kopjanski said. “We are not displacing anyone, nor are we relocating anyone.”
Just how much it will cost Derby to foreclose on the properties — if the full Board of Aldermen decide to do so — wasn’t known, but Hughes estimated it at a few thousand dollars per property.
The foreclosure process could take anywhere from six months to a year, Derby officials estimated.
Here are some more details about the four properties the city may go after.
245 Francis St. is the former home of a business called Castle Seltzer. Its owner, Brian Dworkin, abandoned the property and left the state. It has been on the city’s blight list since August 2008 and accumulated $149,5000 in fines.
In addition, there are $9,922.57 in back taxes owed on the property.
The property attracts rodents and is, in general, a mess. The doors to the building remain open all the time, leaving the potential for squatters and Lord knows what else.
196 Derby Ave. was the scene of a deadly fire in March 2010. Its owner had expressed an intent to rebuild, but never moved forward. The property is an abandoned eyesore that stands out like a sore thumb on Derby Avenue. It has been on the city’s blight list since August 2010 and owes $77,000 in fines, not to mention $9,538 in sewer taxes.
189 Derby Ave. has been on the city’s blight list since October 2008. The residential building was put up for auction, according to city documents, but there were no buyers. It has a blight lien of $144,300 and $1,862 in back sewer taxes.
105 Hawkins St. is abandoned and has been on the blight list since October 2009. Since then it has amassed $109,100 in fines, plus back taxes. The two-family property had an internal water leak that caused mold to form inside.
Will The Aldermen Agree?
The Aldermen’s decision regarding blight issues has been controversial in the past year or so.
They neglected to add an Aldermen’s property to the blight list, despite a recommendation from the city’s own inspectors and complaints from neighbors.
The Aldermen have also voted, on occasion, to reduce blight fines on certain properties in order to get them redeveloped.
Keith McLiverty, the city’s treasurer, has spoken out at several Aldermen meetings urging the board not to give breaks to the owners of blighted properties. Doing so takes away any teeth the blight law has, McLiverty argued.
Click here for a guest column on the issue written by McLiverty.
Just last month the city’s fire commissioner, Kelly Curtis, criticized the Aldermen for giving a blight break to a multi-national bank that took over a property through foreclosure. The criticism was noteworthy because Curtis usually only speaks on fire department items.
At McLiverty’s urging, the Aldermen recommended earlier this year that the city’s tax board establish a demolition fund to raze long-blighted properties after foreclosure. Doing so is good public policy, McLiverty said, and can reduce Derby’s density problem and save money in the long run.
The tax board allocated $100,000 for the initiative.
The foreclosure initiative Oct. 10 enjoyed bi-partisan support from the Community Relations subcommittee.
Hughes, who is a Republican, voted for it, as did Scott Boulton, Republican; Art Gerckens, an independent who ran for office on the Democratic line; and Carmen DiCenso, a Democrat.
