Say goodnight to blight as new county ordinance is passed

By Matt Wiley

Dilapidated businesses will no longer have a place in Pasco County, after the county commission voted to establish news rules to eliminate local eyesores.

The so-called blight ordinance, proposed by Dist. 2 Commissioner Mike Moore, was passed unanimously on Oct. 20 by the Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to the relief of local businesses and residents.

Moore’s proposed ordinance to issue fines and even potential jail time to property owners who let their commercial properties become dilapidated attracted about 100 residents and business owners to the Sept. 30 town hall meeting at the Pasco County Utilities Administration Office off Central Blvd. in Land O’Lakes.

Comm. Moore presented the ordinance as a way to clean up properties to attract new businesses, clean up the county’s image and help prevent the crime that occurs in buildings that aren’t maintained.

The ordinance, modeled after a similar ordinance in Hillsborough County, won’t go into effect until May 1, 2016. The new law gives property owners a 30-day notice to get their blighted buildings repaired, or be subject to a fine. They’ll then be given another 30 days to fix the problem.

If the problem persists beyond 60 days, property owners will be susceptible to a fine of $500 per day until the problem is fixed. If it’s discovered by the county attorney that a business owner has the means to fix the problem or demolish a blighted building and still chooses not to, that person could face jail time.

“What we’re trying to do here is tell people, ‘You need to fix the problem,’” Comm. Moore told the residents at the town hall. “Fix the problem or you’re going to get fined. It’s not good for the surrounding property owners, it’s not good for the community and it’s not good for Pasco County.”

The primary concerns of local businesses is that areas that have vacant and rundown structures do not promote local business growth, bring down property values and discourage other local businesses that are maintained properly.

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said at the town hall that the ordinance is also important because it removes the environments that allow crimes, including drug use, squatting and other illegal activities, to persist. He said the U.S. 19 corridor gets the most calls about crime at various dilapidated businesses.

“From a law enforcement standpoint (ordinances like this) are things that we need,” Nocco said. “If we can limit the places crimes can occur, we can push crime somewhere else. And, we’re trying to push it out of Pasco County.

He added, “We can arrest people all the time. The problem is, when they get out, they go right back to where they came from.”

Moore said he is convinced the ordinance will deter current and future businesses from letting their storefronts and surrounding area from becoming unkempt.

“It doesn’t matter what corridor it is,’’ Moore said. “This ordinance will be a deterrent in the hopes that future commercial property owners will realize that if they let their property become dilapidated, they’re going to get fined.”

Lexington Oaks resident Peter Hansel supports the ordinance.

“The strongest point of this ordinance that I support is the law enforcement aspect,” he said. “I see that as a time saver and financial (resource) saver. I think that by enacting something like this, it will go a long way.”

Aside from crime and squatter, Pasco Professional Firefighters spokesperson Robert Fuerst said properties that are allowed to deteriorate and fester pose other risks.

“Dilapidated properties to firefighters are a special risk,” Fuerst said. “Everything we do is a managed risk. When you have a property that is not maintained, all of the equations that we use to do our job become more risky.”

New Port Richey’s Hunter’s Ridge Homeowner’s Association president Hugh Townsend also said that the ordinance takes a page out of what many residential areas have enforced for years.

“Right now, if a homeowner violates our deed restrictions, (the HOA) cite(s) them and then (the HOA) fine(s) them,” Townsend said. “There’s compliance. When people get hit in the pocket book, they’re going to conform.”

However, some residents did express concern that the cost of enforcing another ordinance would fall to the county taxpayers.

“I’ve done some research,’’ said Land O’Lakes resident Cassie Holloway, saying that adding another ordinance to the existing code enforcement ordinances, the price of demolishing buildings, as well as additional staff for that department, would be a burden to Pasco taxpayers.

Pasco senior assistant county attorney Kristi Sims responded that the new ordinance shifts the burden to the property owner to force them to spend their own money to tear down their dilapidated property.