When the Augusta Commission passed the new blight ordinance in June, it was billed as “adding teeth” to the existing ordinance and would finally bring blighted building under control and the owners responsible.
Only, it hasn’t.
According to documents released by the License and Inspection Department, six properties have been selected but none of the property owners have actually been taken to court, as the ordinance calls for.
The ordinance gives the License and Inspections Department the ability to demand owners either bring a building up to code or demolish it. If the owner fails to make the repairs within 30 days, the department can take the owner to Magistrate Court and then multiply the owner’s property tax bill by seven times.
Commissioners were hopeful that the ordinance could be applied to the old Regency Mall property on Gordon Highway, but so far, no action has been taken according to District 10 Commissioner John Clarke.
“They said the ordinance didn’t apply because the building had been properly mothballed. That shouldn’t matter. It’s an eyesore. Blight is blight,” Clarke said.
Three out of the six properties on the License and Inspections list appear to be properly mothballed, and one building doesn’t appear to be blighted at all from the street view.
According to Clarke, the department is selective of which properties and which owners it threatens with the ordinance.
“They will tell you that they can’t find the owners, but there are prominent people here in town that own blighted properties, and they aren’t cited because the inspectors don’t want to get into an adversarial situation with people who have political connections,” Clarke said.
One such individual is retired Superior Court Judge Carl Brown Jr.
MORE: The Blighted Properties Of Judge Carl Brown Jr.
Not only does Brown own the historic Denning House, located at 905 Seventh Street, but also nearly a quarter of the block. Structures at 907, 909, 913 and 915 Seventh Street are listed as belonging to Brown. Those buildings have belonged to Brown and his family for decades.
The buildings owned by Brown, located around the block from the Municipal Building, are clearly in violation of the ordinance, some even have trees growing through them with branches poking out of the windows.
MORE: Augusta Looks to Join Other Cities in Fighting Blight
Recently, District 1 Commissioner Jordan Johnson, who has pushed for blight reform, brought in a delegation before the commission to discuss the historic former Weed School, located at 2403 Mount Auburn St. in Sand Hills.
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The school has been on Historic Augusta Inc.’s endangered properties list since 2011 and Johnson pointed out that the first Black principal after integration was Lee Beard, for whom the Commission Chamber, and Weed School was where he served.
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While the building is technically mothballed, with boards covering most windows and doors, the building has been accessible to the homeless and constitutes a fire hazard for the neighborhood, according to Sand Hills residents.
There are also reports of parties and even fights occurring inside the school.
District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett says that the department is not enforcing the ordinance the way that the commission intended.
“I believe the intent of the ordinance was to create a set of operating procedures that may be characterized as blighted. This has not been embraced by the staff as of yet,” Garrett said.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
