Blight Ordinance Proves Messy for Durham Officials

Town leaders aren't quite convinced that a proposed blight ordinance would be the best way to clean up Durham's problem properties.

On Monday night, the town's Board of Selectmen revisited a draft proposal of a town law that would target residents whose homes are deemed to be blighted before deciding that the ordinance's impact on the town needed to be researched further before it could be presented at a public hearing.

The ordinance was modeled after the Town of Portland's blight and nusiance ordinance, which was adopted by voters earlier this year. Recently however Portland town officials have struggled to find volunteers to serve as blight hearing officers, according to First Selectman Laura Francis.

"I think I've been pretty consistent with saying this, that I wouldn't want to put anything on the books without a very clear enforcement policy," she said.

Francis, who stressed that the town had only a handful of problematic homeowners, said enforcement of a blight ordinance would likely prove costly to the town and ultimately would not guarantee a solution.

"It sounds like it's extremely problematic," said selectman Steve Levy. "When I hear about things happening the solutions have been draconian. They've been multi-year court battles where finally the town's are seizing properties and destroying them."

Finding a solution for one blighted property in particular — the abandoned home at the corner of Tuttle and Parmelee Hill roads — has been elusive, officials said.

"It's frustrating," Francis said. "We can not find a way, legally, around it."

Selectman John Szewczyk initially supported the idea of bringing the ordinance to public hearing where, at the very least he said, officials could get some feedback from the public.

"I don't think bringing it to public hearing means necessarily you're supporting it. You're putting it out there because it's been expressed by people, some people, and see what the townspeople want," he said.

Francis, however, said she wasn't entirely comfortable bringing the ordinance to a public hearing without first answering the questions that town officials had. She was also concerned that the town itself, which owns two abandoned properties on Main Street, would be subject to the ordinance.

"I think we can do more research, there's no doubt about that," she said.

The board briefly discussed an idea by Durham resident Trish Dynia who recommended that the town form an ad-hoc committee to study the ordinance and it's impact.

Ultimately, selectmen agreed to explore including some of the language from the ordinance in the town's zoning regulations. 

"What we want is a solution. We don't want an ordinance that doesn't lead to a solution," Levy said.