Mayor wins one battle, loses one in blight fight

Vacant registry OK; no to ‘real’ list

The City Council on Tuesday approved a vacant property registry, giving Memphis Mayor A C Wharton half of the proposed ordinance he pushed to help identify those responsible for blighted properties plaguing the city.

“It’s not a panacea, but at least it opens the door,” Wharton told reporters after the council passed the amended measure on a 7-4 vote.

The vacant property registry will require mortgage lenders to register single-family homes and condominiums that city code enforcement officials determine are vacant, abandoned and delinquent on city property taxes. A $200 annual fee is required and $50 fines apply for not complying, but registration would not be required if delinquent taxes are

paid.

Wharton’s administration also sought another registry, a “real property registry” that would have required all property owners in the city to verify the identity and address of the property owner or an agent. With a motion offered by council member Lee Harris, the council voted 8-3 to strike down the registry affecting all property owners.

“My problem is I think it that it impacts way too many Memphians,” Harris said, without showing enough benefits. Harris also suggested that the city could collect information voluntarily through city property tax bills, without a proposed $200 fee the ordinance proposed for those who failed to comply.

With passage of the vacant property registry, Memphis joins a national trend speeded by the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession. Identifying the owners or mortgage lenders with an interest in vacant, blighted properties to hold them accountable is a problem that has grown.

The banking community had resisted the ordinance, for which a final vote had been delayed for months. Representatives of two banks, First Alliance and First Tennessee, pointed to out-of-town financial institutions as the problem.

Charles Tuggle, general counsel for First Tennessee Bank, told the council that as a responsible corporate citizen that pays a lot of taxes and provides a lot of jobs and payroll, First Tennessee shouldn’t be punished because of out-of-towners.

Neighborhood activists and a representative of a Frayser Community Development Corporation were among several speakers who urged the council to pass the measure.

Council vice chairman Jim Strickland voiced the strongest opposition to the proposals and suggested that other measures, such as going to the state legislature to shorten the time necessary for the city to condemn blighted properties, provided a real answer.

Wharton said passage of the vacant property registry was only a beginning and that he will work with those who opposed it.