After some debate, the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously last week to give a blighted property owner a break on his estimated $40,000 blight bill.
Angry?
Before you jump out of your seat to complain to City Hall — the above description, naturally, doesn’t tell the whole story.
The Aldermen entertained a request from Sean Sweeney, an attorney for National Mortgage, to lower the blight fees on a home the bank owns through a foreclosure at 2 Pleasant View Road.
The property in question features a single-family, 1,585 square-foot house with two bedrooms, 1.5 baths and a two-car garage on .35 acre.
It was listed as selling for $140,000.
The previous owners were elderly and the house and property fell into major disrepair. At least one of the owners died, according to city officials, and the property entered the foreclosure process sometime last spring.
The bank finally took over the property June 10 and began addressing issues at the property, such as a lawn with grass more than a foot tall.
A blight lien was placed on the property about a year ago. It carries fines of $100 a day until the property is addressed. The total fines were estimated last week to be in the range of $40,000.
Sweeney appeared at the Oct. 1 Aldermen meeting and to ask if city officials would consider lowering the amount, considering the company could not do anything about the property until the foreclosure process ended.
Sweeney said a young couple is in the process of purchasing the home. They will most likely do more improvements once they move in.
The Aldermen received a letter signed by 18 residents urging them to leave the fines in place. Basically, the neighbors had to live with an eyesore and lowering the fine isn’t fair, the neighbors’ letter said.
The request triggered two schools of thought among the Aldermen.
Aldermanic President Ken Hughes worried that giving the company a break would be a waste of city resources. Blight officers had done their job researching the property and compiling the paperwork needed to levy the blight fines, Hughes reasoned.
In addition, Hughes worried lowering the blight fine would set a precedent — namely, that Derby doesn’t really enforce its blight law.
“Don’t worry about the blight law, they’ll reduce it,” Hughes said.
However, Alderman Jay Benanto said the property is in the process of being cleaned up. He suggested the city eliminate a portion of the $100-a-day fine, starting from the date National Mortgage started to work on the property.
Eventually, the Aldermen agreed and voted unanimously to lower the fine by 25 percent.
Corporation Counsel Joseph Coppola was to contact attorney Sweeney with the precise money owed to Derby.
