Paterson's mayor wants to revise laws regulating vacant property. Here's how
PATERSON — After converting hundreds of vacant sites into housing, Mayor Andre Sayegh’s administration wants to tinker with the city laws governing abandoned properties.
The proposed changes affect requirements for property owners to register vacant sites, the fees for those registrations, the fines for failing to comply and the process for foreclosure of abandoned land.
The City Council is scheduled to take preliminary votes on the revised vacant property laws next week. As a councilman, Sayegh had sponsored one of the ordinances being changed.
“When I took office as mayor, there were 1,200 abandoned properties, and four years later, there are 400,” Sayegh said. “This latest ordinance will help further reduce the number of abandoned properties and streamline the process.”
But Sayegh’s constant critic, Councilman Michael Jackson, said he thinks the changes are designed to create real estate business opportunities for the mayor’s supporters.
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“This is just going to allow things to take place that are to their advantage,” Jackson said.
In a memo to City Council members, Sayegh’s law director, Aymen Aboushi, said the proposed changes in the city ordinances need to be made to comply with revisions in state law. Aboushi said in his memo that the changes would require creditors to provide Paterson with detailed information about abandoned properties and possible foreclosure proceedings.
Out-of-state creditors who fail to appoint local representatives for vacant properties would face $2,500-per-day fines, and creditors who violate other aspects of the abandoned property law would face $1,500-per-day penalties.
About a decade ago, city officials conducted a survey of vacant and abandoned properties in Paterson and found about 2,000. Many were removed from the list before Sayegh took office, either because they were incorrectly listed as abandoned or because the sites had been redeveloped.
Under Sayegh’s watch, the number of vacant properties converted to active use grew dramatically, especially in the city’s 4th Ward. Prominent real estate investor Charles Florio, a Sayegh ally, has led the charge in building new housing on what had been vacant land.
The wave of new construction has triggered criticism from some community leaders, who assert that the 4th Ward has become too congested, with the extra residents putting an increased strain on city services.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ vacant property: Mayor seeks new regulations
