Royston DDA Chair Asks City Fathers to Crack Down on Owners of Abandoned Downtown Buildings

The Royston Downtown Development Authority is asking the City to enact ordinances designed to clean up blighted properties.

At their City Council meeting Tuesday evening, the City Council and Mayor heard from Main Street Director Michael Crump who spoke on behalf of DDA Chairperson Marjorie Moore who was out sick.

Reading her letter to the Council, Crump read her request to begin working to get absentee building owners downtown to clean up and fix up their properties.

In her letter, Moore added the blighted buildings downtown detract from the current downtown businesses that are trying to attract more tourists customers to the area and are an eyesore to those passing through town.

Crump held up copies of a Blighted Property ordinance and a Vacant Building Registry from the City of Cornelia as an example of what Royston could enact.

He pointed out that at a public meeting regarding the problem of abandoned and dilapidated downtown buildings last year, the Council and Mayor at the time committed to working on developing an ordinance that would force absentee owners to clean up their properties.

In response, Mayor Keith Turman said he agreed that the City of Royston must do something about the blighted abandoned properties downtown.

Turman then asked for a motion to review the Cornelia ordinances at a future work session and that passed unanimously.