City council approves vacant-building ordinance: Owners of empty buildings must provide plans or face fines
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – The Bakersfield City Council has taken another big step in an ongoing fight against blight within the city’s older urban core, putting some teeth in its efforts.
Bakersfield’s municipal government handed out $1 million to 22 local businesses through its Economic Opportunity Area Program just last month, assisting property owners whose buildings need repairs or upgrades in order to remain commercially viable.
Now, too few property owners whose vacant buildings have became attractive nuisances have demonstrated a real willingness to do something.
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So much for the carrot. Behold the stick.
The city council approved a vacant nuisance registry ordinance Wednesday night that requires owners of unused, empty buildings – both downtown and in Old Town Kern – to file paperwork with the city and place prominent signage that lists their name and contact information.
By a 5-2 vote, the council OK’d the ordinance calling on owners of properties left vacant for at least 30 days to submit a plan for the site. Failure to comply could mean fines or liens against those owners.
Vice Mayor Andrae Gonzales, whose 2nd ward includes the targeted areas, said the ordinance is another tool in the city’s anti-blight, anti-squatter, anti-arson toolbelt.
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“When you have a higher concentration of those vacant properties within, let’s say, a downtown, it becomes that much more of a problem,” said Gonzales. “So we have to get a handle on it.”
“We know that enforcement is…not always the solution when it comes to property owners,” he added. “We want to work with property owners, work with those good actors who want to do something with their properties.”
Gonzales said the city has yet to develop a fine schedule or specifics on how it might impose liens. Other possibilities include bulldozing abandoned, dangerous buildings and, as a last resort, takeovers by way of eminent domain.
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