There were no big surprises for a group of Augusta commissioners who toured blighted properties in three districts Friday.
But the tour put a spotlight on the magnitude of the city’s continued struggle to deal with abandoned properties.
“I lived in Augusta all my life and I see different things here and there, but to see the magnitude of what I saw today, it just really opened my eyes,” Commissioner Tony Lewis said.
Lewis said his District 6 has far less blight than Districts 1, 2 and 9, which the four commissioners toured parts of Friday.
Over the last two decades, the city has torn down hundreds of blighted structures in the historic Laney-Walker and Bethlehem districts, located in District 1, and elsewhere around Augusta. Funding has come from various sources, including sales taxes, tourism fees and federal housing dollars.
Many more remain, and small victories can take years, Code Enforcement Supervisor Donna Tyra told the group.
The tour stopped at a cluster of historic row houses on Conklin Lane plagued for years by drugs and crime.
Over nearly a decade, the properties were acquired, and eight of 16 of the row houses demolished and the remaining homes recently modernized, Tyra said.
Commissioner Francine Scott said codes enforcement goes beyond posting “condemned” notices on houses. It also consults with neighbors to help identify a property’s owners and the desired outcome.
“They go to the neighboring houses and talk to the people,” Scott said. “Sometimes it’s integral to find out who owned the property. Even though there may be a name, it may be heir property, especially over in the Bethlehem community,” she said.
“Those houses probably came from people’s parents and grandparents and nobody probated the will, so it’s difficult to see who they can charge or make sure the property gets renovated or torn down. That helps people understand what they need to do and how to get it done.”
Safety is also a big concern, she said. In 2020, an Augusta codes enforcement officer was gunned down while posting a condemned sign on a nearby house.
Friday’s tour of the Harrisburg community was cut short after rain started and the commissioners lingered in the Glendale community off Olive Road in District 2.
In the neighborhood, a house owned by Augusta Georgia Land Bank Authority stood ripped nearly to shreds. Another home nearby had a large tree on top of it.
Commissioner Stacy Pulliam, who represents the area, said she’d actually been pleased with the attention codes enforcement had been giving the district.
“Last year, a lot of the blighted properties were taken down in my area,” she said. “It’s not as easy as pointing at a property and saying that needs to be taken down. They actually have to go through a process, in court, sending out certified letters, finding the owners of heir property.”
District 1 Commissioner Jordan Johnson said the city is making progress on clearing out blight, but legal, financial and other hurdles often come up that slow completion.
“The work is getting done, but there are gaps that exist between us getting the work done and completing the work,” he said.
Johnson and Scott, who are up for re-election in May, Pulliam and Lewis were the only commissioners to attend the tour Friday.
