After pandemic-forced break, New Britain looks to target blighted properties
Frustrated by scores of properties across New Britain that have broken windows, uncut grass, collapsing porches or other blight, city leaders are looking at a fresh enforcement drive to make owners clean up.
In some cases, that could even mean publicizing the names of property owners who consistently refuse to address warnings by city inspectors, citations and even lawsuits.
“We’re considering publishing the names of the worst offenders as a way to inform the public of their disregard for their housing stock,” Mayor Erin Stewart said Wednesday. “If I was a tenant looking for an apartment, it’s something I’d want to know.”
The city’s anti-blight task force was largely on hiatus during the pandemic, mostly to keep inspectors from needing to go into derelict buildings. Courts also were closed, creating a backlog of cases against the worst blight offenders.
But this summer, the task force is back at work and looking for new ways to curb the blight that expanded during the lost year.
Inspectors are again issuing warnings and citations, filing lawsuits and employing the Clean and Lien ordinance, which authorizes city staff to clean up the worst debris or maintain the worst yards after owners ignore repeated requests. The city then bills the owners for the cost, and attaches a tax lien if necessary.
City inspectors are also creating spreadsheets listing properties with the worst violations as well as the longest-standing ones. Stewart said she would like to create a Dirty Dozen list showing the addresses and ownership of the 12 worst-maintained properties in the city. Almost invariably they are out-of-town landlords who rent to poor tenants and neglect their properties, she said.
“The last thing you’d want to do is rent an apartment from someone who doesn’t take care of their property,” she said. “The local newspaper published the names of infractions for speeding — why not blight violations?”
The anti-blight task force — made up of fire and building inspectors and others — is also building a database of properties that are three years or more behind in taxes. Owners in those situations are more apt to let maintenance slip, and the task force wants to issue warnings early while conditions can still be corrected economically.
One of the top targets is the long-closed Israel Putnam School on Osgood Avenue. The boarded-up red brick building has been attracting vandals for most of the past 20 years; neighbors complain of frequent trespassers and middle-of-the-night visits by people dumping trash there.
Fire set by vandals in 2008 did extensive damage, and the building has only deteriorated since then. In a 2009 blog post, David Myslenski described driving by his mother’s old elementary school: “As we pulled up you can tell it was abandoned, with high weeds growing around, graffiti on the walls, and in serious disrepair.”
Various city administrations have tried to work with the owners with limited success; at one point the property was in probate and later in foreclosure. A sale to Newington-based Osgood Avenue Property LLC was intended to accommodate a redevelopment plan, but it never advanced.
Instead, the 62,000-square-foot building sits as an eyesore in the midst of a residential neighborhood barely a half-block from Farmington Avenue. The 2015 sale price was $130,000; the property is now listed for sale at $600,000.
Last month, the city began levying $99 a day fines for eroding masonry and faded paint, plywood boards covering windows, broken chimneys and roof damage.
If the owners won’t address the problems, the city is hoping to take ownership through foreclosure or with a purchase far below the $600,000 asking price. New Britain would then try to market the property to a private developer.
