Derby Aldermen are inching toward adopting a “clean and lien” ordinance in the city.
The ordinance would allow a city employee (most likely from the Department of Public Works) or a contractor hired by Derby to clean up the exterior of a blighted property.
Blighted properties are properties that are such a mess they diminish neighborhoods.
The ordinance calls for the city to clean the property only after giving the property owner a chance to address the mess. In addition, the city has to give fair warning of their intent to enter private property.
After a cleanup, the city would bill the property owner by adding the dollar amount to any blight liens on the property.
Properties on the Derby blight list already face fines of $100 per day.
Alderman Carmen DiCenso is the chairman of the city’s blight subcommittee. The subcommittee discussed the issue Sept. 9.
He said the “clean and lien” program is targeted at Derby’s most hopelessly blighted properties, specifically ones that are abandoned and are neighborhood nuisances.
The former Dworkin Chevrolet off Seymour Avenue comes to mind. The 3‑acre site has become a dumping ground since closing in 2008.
At a blight subcommittee meeting Tuesday, Fran Teodosio, an attorney with the city’s law firm, walked members through a proposed ordinance, which came to Derby through Ansonia, where legislators adopted a clean and lien program last year.
Click here for a look at how Ansonia uses the program.
Teodosio said he was expecting to find due process issues with “clean and lien,” since it involves public employees or agents of local government entering private property.
But a case in federal court out of Maryland actually ruled in favor of a municipality who entered private property to clean a mess — even though the municipality cut a fence to gain access.
After reading about the facts in the Maryland case, “I thought for sure the community was going to get slammed,” Teodosio said. “But the court ruled the community had given sufficient notice.”
Click here to read about the case.
The blight committee recommended the full Board of Aldermen take a look at the draft “clean and lien” ordinance, as did the Operations and Procedures subcommittee.
The full Board of Aldermen could take up the issue at a meeting Sept. 24.
