New law to help town fight blight
RTM approves ordinance aimed at dilapidated properties
GREENWICH — A long-debated new blight ordinance was approved Monday night by the Representative Town Meeting, a move that will put a new blight officer and a blight review board in place.
“The blight ordinance addresses dilapidated, blighted, ratinfested structures in a very compassionate manner, which will protect the health, safety and welfare of all of the residents of the town,” RTM District 4 member Samarpana Tamm said. “The needs of the blighted property owner are handled with special consideration and care.”
The RTM passed the ordinance by a vote of 146 to 38, with seven abstentions.
Under the ordinance, the town will appoint a blight officer to investigate complaints
Under the ordinance, the town will appoint a blight officer to investigate complaints, which will go to a blight review board made up of town officials such as the police chief, fire chief, commissioner of human services, director of planning and zoning, and health director.
The board will develop action plans to address blight issues, which includes due process for property owners to challenge findings and work with the town. The ordinance also addresses circumstances that may come up, including issues of physical or mental health, as part of the consideration of a complaint.
The blight officer will be tasked with enforcing the ordinance and will ultimately report to the first selectman. The blight officer will have the power to assess fines and issue citations.
Bob McKnight, chair of the RTM’s District 4 in Byram, spoke in support of the ordinance at Monday’s meeting on Zoom. He noted that a blighted property on Mead Avenue had “plagued Byram” due to a lack of effective ordinances.
“Greenwich’s weak nuisance ordinance and a lack of a local blight ordinance provided little relief to neighbors facing problems
from animal and rodent concerns,” McKnight said. “This problematic property provided an attractive nuisance to our youth, not to mention possible structural insecurity and a fire hazard in a heavily congested area.”
McKnight said the new ordinance will be a “good start” to dealing with blighted properties.
There had been complaints going back decades about the property on Mead Avenue. The structure, which had partially collapsed, was demolished in
2019.
Under the new ordinance, a blighted property is defined as any structure or building, whether occupied, abandoned or vacant, “which is in such a condition that it poses a serious long-term or immediate danger to the community through risk of collapse, fire or infestation, or which has been declared by the Director of Health as unfit for human habitation, or which otherwise puts at risk the health or safety of the citizens, first responders and
municipal officials.”
It also defines lack of maintenance to include missing or boarded up windows or doors, a collapsed or missing wall, a sagging or collapsed roof or floor, and/or a pest infestation.
The ordinance had gone before the RTM last summer as part of a nuisance ordinance. After that, a special committee worked for months on the language to separate blight review from nuisance regulations.
On Monday night, residents went public with concerns about a house on Hobart Avenue that has been abandoned for nearly 10 years.
“There’s blue tarp that covers the entire back of the house. There’s a door nailed to the roof. There’s broken windows that have been boarded up that should just be a temporary fix but (it) has been like that for years,” Laura Monelli, a neighbor of the property, said during the RTM meeting. “I have two very small children and we have seen raccoons and rats.”
Michele Robinson, another neighbor said she has felt “embarrassment” when friends and family asked why the structure is allowed to stay in such poor condition with no one living there.
“I feel this ordinance is very fair to (property) owners as well as neighbors,” Robinson said. “We need to find resolution for everyone.”
The town has received many complaints about that property, Town Administrator Ben Branyan, who helped put the new ordinance together and would be a member of the blight review board, said Tuesday.
The blight officer, under the new ordinance, will review the property, he said.
Several motions were defeated during Monday’s debate, including one that would have sent it back to the special committee for further work, and another that would have required a unanimous vote of the three-member Board of Selectmen to hire the blight officer.
Another amendment called for town residents to make up the blight review board, not town officials.
“I’m in my 30th year on RTM and I have seen a lot,” District 1 member Carl Carlson said. “I tell you if you have eight residents, you have a better chance of justice any day of the week at any time than you would with officials. Go with the democracy. The democracy is clean and good for this country.”
However, there was not much support for the motion, which failed.
“Many of our town codes are enforced by town employees,” said District 4 member Lucy von Brachel, a member of the special committee. “This board’s job is to determine whether blight exists. That is not a job for civilians. It’s a job for the people who are experts in code enforcement and the codes that relate to blight.”
District 7 member Scott Kalb, another member of the special committee, said the town’s legal department advised that putting citizens on the blight review board was a “terrible idea” and could create situations where residents were making blight decisions about their neighbors.