Franklin County BOC Considers Adding Blighted Property Ordinance

Franklin County Commissioners are looking at enacting a blighted property ordinance as well as possibly adding a higher property tax for owners of blighted properties.

Commissioners discussed the issue at their work session Tuesday evening.

During the public comment section, Dave Dorsa, who lives in Fisherman’s Cove off Gumlog Road, spoke to the Commission on behalf of his neighbors regarding some of the squalid conditions he said people are living in further back in that subdivision.

Dorsa handed the Commissioners photos of one residence in his subdivision and said there is rampant drug use in that area. He said he has had to install security cameras on his property because of the activity that goes on in the middle of the night.

“My neighborhood is a mixture of children and elderly people and when I was driving by with my neighbor taking these pictures, some of these places are so set back and overgrown, if someone on drugs or an unwell person were to drag a child or an elderly person back there you’re not going to find them for days, if ever. I and some of my neighbors have spent hundreds of dollars on security video cameras and we’ve recorded all kinds of nefarious activity,” he told Commissioners.

Dorsa said they need help from the County to clean up those areas.  He said 911 has been called numerous times but nothing is being done to fix the problem.

“The properties, the houses that people are living in, have no water, no electricity, no windows, no front doors. They’re using a drywall bucket for a bathroom. They’re using the lake for a bathtub. It’s frustrating. And the zombie-like activity at 3:30 in the morning that sets off your security cameras and the lights, it’s aggravating. And then to be dismissed by the police department. I called once and they said, ‘people are dropping off Campbell soup’ at 3:30 in the morning.  That was my answer from the dispatcher,” he said.

Dorsa’s complaint segued into a discussion by Commissioners regarding blight that was already on the agenda, and about adding a blight ordinance to the County code of ordinances.

Commission Chair Jason Macomson said there is a program in Georgia that would tax property owners whose property was deemed blighted.

“In 2002, Georgia voters approved a Constitutional amendment that allows counties and municipalities to establish a tax incentive program to encourage property owners to remediate or redevelop blighted properties,” he said. “This program is called the Community Redevelopment Tax Incentive Program and it basically establishes a blight tax by allowing local governments to charge a higher tax rate for properties that have been declared blighted.”

Macomson noted, however, that the blight tax would not apply to primary residences and the County would have to come up with its own ordinance that specifically outlines what constitutes a blighted or uninhabitable residence or building.

Questions arose from Commissioners as to how to determine which properties were primary residences and what the process would be for condemning a property.

County Manager Derrick Turner said one way to determine a primary residence would be to check whether the house had a homestead exemption.

In citing the properties mentioned by Dorsa, Macomson asked what the County could do now to get those kinds of run-down properties cleaned up.

“There is the International Property Maintenance Code, which I know Franklin County has adopted and it’s part of the State Building Code, said County Planning and Zoning Director Scott DeLozier. “If a house doesn’t have water, it’s uninhabitable. If a house does not have electricity, it’s uninhabitable. If a house does not have the ability to maintain a temperature of 68 degrees in the winter months, three feet off the wall and three-foot-high, it’s uninhabitable. And in the summer months, you don’t have to have air conditioning but it’s got to have a way to make sure you’re not having a build-up of humidity which would cause mold and rot and that kind of thing. So, there are provisions already from the State in the Building Code and the International Property Maintenance Code.”

Turner recommended the County research what other counties in Georgia are doing to control blight and what kinds of ordinances they have on their books.

No vote was taken but after more discussion, Commissioners directed Turner to work with the County Attorney, and the County Marshal to come up with a proposal for a blight ordinance and to present it at their April meeting.