Grass grows over a fence.
A foreclosed home decays.
In one particularly gruesome case, garbage is thrown from a third-story window into a large dumpster waiting on the ground.
It’s blight. And Shelton officials hope to tighten the laws so they can order it cleaned up faster.
A revised blight ordinance is being reviewed by the Board of Aldermen, and residents can weigh in at a public hearing Aug. 25 at city hall.
Alderman Eric McPherson, one of the aldermen leading the charge for a stricter blight law, said the proposal would streamline a lengthy process.
“The way it is now, it’s a very dragged-out process,” said McPherson. “This is going to eliminate these loopholes.”
McPherson said the current law has several layers of administration before a property owner can be fined. The proposed law cuts that down, and puts discretion for fining in the hands of one person: the Community Development Director.
The proposed ordinance also includes new items under the definition of blight, said Alderman John “Jack” Finn, another alderman pushing for the revised law.
Namely, tall grass and weeds will now be considered blight.
“But we’re excluding farm lands,” Finn said.
Finn and McPherson said the old ordinance could take up to six months to process blight claims.
If the new ordinance is approved by the full Board of Aldermen, it would now take 10 days, Finn said.
Shelton is not the only town taking a look at the blight rules on the books.
Seymour has been grappling with its own blight law this summer as well. There is a public hearing on a revised law in that town Sept. 1. In Seymour, residents were concerned that anonymous blight complaints were pitting neighbors against each other.
Under Seymour’s revised blight law, complaints would have to be signed by the individual. The proposed changes also decrease the potential fines for non-complaince.
