Groton Will Consider Blight Ordinance

Groton is drafting a town-wide blight ordinance to deal with homeowners and businesses that allow their properties to become run-down or unsightly. 

The draft is expected to be finished by the end of this summer.

Evelyn Brimlow said it can't happen soon enough.

"What if I suddenly have to sell this house?" said Brimlow, who lives next door to an overgrown yard and house from which dozens of cats and a dog were seized last year. She said neighbors complained for years about the smell and appearance of the house in their neighborhood.

"Fifteen years we've fought the town about this house," she said. "We had to see it all the time. The stench from over there was horrific."

Groton planning officials, working with the council, hope to finish a draft ordinance by September, then schedule meetings to educate the public about the proposal and determine whether there’s support for it. A new code could be voted on early next year, according to a timeline drafted for a Town Council committee.

Details are still being determined, but in general terms, the ordinance would define blight as unsafe, unsanitary or faulty structures, fire hazards, dilapidated buildings such as those damaged by fire or flooding, and properties strewn with garbage or infested with rodents, according to the minutes of the last town council committee meeting on the topic.

The ordinance would also apply to landscaping that’s overgrown or intrudes on sidewalks and intersections, to parking lots where landscaping is not maintained, and to excessive lawn height.

The rule would not apply to peeling or bubbling paint, vandalism or graffiti, the minutes said.

Kevin Quinn, manager of inspection services for Groton, said the council must still determine the exact definition of blight, how the ordinance would be enforced and what penalties might apply. He said he receives one or two complaints a month about blight in town, often related to overgrown yards and shrubs.

Groton City has a blight ordinance and the Fort Hill neighborhood has one, but the town does not have one as a whole.  Councilors last discussed the issue in committee in May, and directed the planning department to draft an ordinance they could work with.

Planning officials are also expected to ask Groton Long Point and Noank if they would like to be covered by the proposal.

Brimlow lives on Ann Avenue, next to a property known in her neighborhood as "the cat house". Brimlow said she complained to town officials about the smell, appearance of the house and snakes and rodents she believed were coming from the property. Eventually, she said a neighbor called animal control, who investigated, obtained a search warrant and removed dozens of cats from the house.

The property was recently sold and the new owner plans to tear the house down, Brimlow said. Still, she believes if the town had had a blight ordinance, it wouldn't have gotten so bad to begin with.

"It gets overgrown and they think, who sees it?" she said. "We do. Every day."