t the town board meeting on March 10, the town board unanimously voted in favor of new legislation that addresses abandoned properties by establishing a Vacant Buildings Registry, which will require building owners to register the buildings and mandate annual inspections to ensure they do not become hazards to the public or emergency personnel.
In addition, owners will have to pay a designated registration fee with an escalating yearly maintenance fee, maintain liability insurance for the property and submit a detailed long-term plan, whether its for rehabilitation or demolition.
“These blighted properties are not only an eyesore for the neighbors, they are a danger to first responders who may be called in the event of a fire or medical emergency,” said Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, who put forth the initiative, in a statement from the town. “They are putting a strain on Town resources. Now fees will be imposed on property owners who are using the most services.”
Town officials hope the new law will help transform neglected sites into productive assets for the community.
Ryan Murphy, the Town Code Compliance and Emergency Management Administrator, said the code has to go through the local law filing process and will then be published in the town’s eCode system. “That could take a few weeks to maybe a month. In the meantime we will be preparing for it and have to create some new processes and procedures to manage and implement the new code,” he said.
The Fire Marshal’s office has long kept a dilapidated structures list and they routinely check on those properties known to be vacant and run down. “Many of them often become open and unsecured too due to weather, animals and/or vagrants,” Murphy notes. “There are structures that have been vacant the entire time that I have been at the town and others for even longer than that. The effort that goes into checking on them, while the owners show no regard or care for their maintenance in many cases, is a burden that should not have to be shouldered by the remainder of the tax base that also has to stare at them decaying while the owner is elsewhere.”
According to the code, owners have to register a building within 30 days of vacancy. “That said, it does establish what qualifies as vacancy. Much of that sends things in the direction of more unmaintained, dilapidated, deteriorating, structures,” Muprhy explains. “The intent of this code is to address those conditions first and foremost. Those structures also tend to present safety concerns for all of us in the emergency services too. The deteriorating conditions can often compromise the structure and create severe safety issues. The presence of animals, animal feces, broken glass, etc. all present additional safety concerns. From a community and responder safety standpoint, those will be the first structures we start to deal with.”
The new law will not apply to any of the villages within the town (Sagaponack, Sag Harbor, North Haven, Southampton, Quogue or Westhampton Beach), but only to unincorporated portions of the town.
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