In an effort to clean up blight, the Augusta Commission instructed the law department to draw up an ordinance dealing specifically with blighted properties.
A draft of the ordinance is available. The ordinance is called “Redevelopment Area Blighted Property Program.”
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Augusta planned to use the blight ordinance in effect in Macon-Bibb County. A comparison shows the draft for Augusta’s ordinance has much of the same language for defining blight, property inspections, an increased property tax as penalty and property owners can request a hearing and the opportunity to make repairs.
In 2019, records show 310 properties in Macon-Bibb County were listed as blighted and eligible for the blight tax, an increase to property taxes, as a penalty. Most of the owners live in the Macon area, but some are as far away as New York and California, even some in England. About 35 were pulled from the list for a variety of reasons, including the property being sold. Eighteen properties were voluntarily rehabilitated and removed from the list.
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Nearly 60 owners requested a hearing. The records do not show the outcome of the hearings, but Senior Assistant County Attorney Michael McNeill of the Macon-Bibb County Attorney’s Office said, “Every property owner that received a blight tax letter, and did not request a hearing, and did not subsequently have their property removed from the list (either for administrative purposes or because they cured the issues) had the blight tax applied.”
McNeill said that includes the remaining 200 properties on the 2019 list.
Savannah has the Community Redevelopment Tax Incentive Program. If properties meet two of the six criteria, they are considered blighted and a blight levy is added to the tax bill.
The blight levy was assessed against 72 properties in 2018. Twenty-eight properties were initially assessed in 2017 and 44 were added in 2018. The levy was assessed against 76 properties in 2019. Twenty-five properties were initially assessed in 2017, 42 in 2018 and nine were added in 2019.
The process does include appeal hearings in Recorder’s Court if a property owner requests one. Three appeals filed in 2018 and 2019 were denied. A fourth, filed in 2019, remains open.
Records supplied by the city show Savannah collected more than $308,184 in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Director of the Code Compliance Department Kevin Milton says the only expenditures connected to the process are employee salaries. He says a rough estimate is $57,000.
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The consolidated government of Columbus-Muscogee County does not have an ordinance specifically for targeting blight. The city deals with blight with assorted ordinances. That is currently the method Augusta uses.
Between June 5, 2018 and November 15, 2019, Columbus filed what it calls “Demolition or Grass Liens” against 38 properties. Those are properties where the city had to demolish a structure or cut overgrown grass. The fines ranged from $149 to $2,606 for a total expense to the city of $20,706.
However, those properties also had unpaid taxes ranging from $1,010.86 to $14,355.58, totaling just over $196,000 for properties where the city had to spend money to demolish or cut the grass.
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Columbus recouped the money when the properties were put up for tax sale. Some properties sold for just the back taxes but even that amount exceeded what the city had spent with demolition or grass liens. The 38 sold properties brought the city more than than $327,000 dollars.
The recently-passed SPLOST 8 project list includes $4 million for “blight mitigation.”
No vote has been taken yet on the proposed blight ordinance for Augusta.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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