Bluffton developing program to fight blight
Owners of unsafe and dilapidated buildings in Bluffton could get some help from the town.
The town is developing a program that gives owners money to have a structure removed if it is deemed unsafe by a contractor or by town or police officials.
"The goal .. is (to improve) the health and safety of the community," Kendra Lelie, Bluffton's assistant director of growth management, said at an Affordable Housing Committee meeting earlier this week.
The committee approved a tiered program based on the property owner's income.
Owners who earn 80 percent or less of the area median income, which is around $65,000, can qualify for funding with no strings attached.
"It's a grant, basically," Lelie said.
If owners exceed that threshold, a five-year lien for the cost of the demolition will be placed on the property.
The lien serves as safeguard to ensure an owner isn't using public funds to spruce up their property only to turn around and sell it, Lelie said.
But if the property is deemed a significant hazard to public safety, no lien will be placed regardless of income.
The program is administered by the town's Growth Management Department. Individual funding requests will be contingent available money. The pool of money has yet to be identified.
Bluffton Police Chief Joey Reynolds said the program is a "very proactive approach" to making the community safer.
"Doing away with blighted structures fits into community policing in so many ways," he said in an email Wednesday. "Often these structures become a nexus for criminal activity." By providing funds to demolish them, the town is taking steps to "control criminal activity and improve quality of for our community," he wrote.
In addition to being unsafe, blighted properties are an eyesore.
Demolishing them "beautifies the town, so it's serving a purpose," Affordable Housing Committee member Sheri Bush said.
It's unclear just how severe the problem is.
Because these buildings -- often decrepit sheds and other similar structures -- typically sit on private property, officials often don't know they exist until property owners approach the town.
But Lelie said the town currently has a list of about a dozen properties whose owners could qualify for the demolition program.
Details about the location and condition of these structures were requested, but town spokeswoman Debbie Szpanka said Friday that information can not be released because the buildings are on private property.
Since 2009, 49 blighted structures have been demolished by owners without the town's assistance, Lelie said.
The town has taken on other blight-removal programs in the past.
The Wharf Street redevelopment project involved the demolition of several blighted structures, which were replaced with affordable housing units.
Follow reporter Lucas High on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Lucas.
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This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 7:13 PM with the headline "Bluffton developing program to fight blight."