Saturday, May 10, 2008; Posted: 12:13 PM
The crumbling building, a former concrete-making business, is fenced off but still attracts homeless people and bored juveniles. In December, Arlington firefighters put out a small fire a homeless man had set inside to stay warm. In March, kids set another fire that caused a butane tank inside to explode, leaving jagged cracks in the concrete walls.
"It's an eyesore," said Marvin Espinoza, who owns an aircraft parts manufacturing business across the street. "It needs to be torn down."
Arlington plans to become the first city in Texas to implement a registration and annual inspection program for buildings that have been vacant a year or longer, Community Services Director Lee Hitchcock said. The initiative is designed to prevent unoccupied structures from becoming a blight in neighborhoods and to encourage the owners to rehabilitate, sell, lease or demolish their vacant homes and commercial buildings.
"Chronically vacant structures do degrade neighborhood integrity and afford increased opportunities for criminal activity," Hitchcock said. "We feel we need to come up with a systematic and sustainable program that will address this head-on."
The vacant cinderblock building on Knight Street is one of an estimated 2,000 vacant buildings, mostly houses, in Arlington, city officials said. While most vacant properties are concentrated in older, central Arlington neighborhoods, they can be found across the city.
The Arlington City Council, which heard an overview of the proposed program Tuesday, directed the staff to draft an ordinance. The council could vote on the proposal as soon as next month and, if approved, the program could begin Oct. 1 after a three-month educational period, Hitchcock said.
Residents and property owners can comment during a public hearing before a vote is taken on the ordinance.
Proposed program
Those affected: Owners of buildings without an active water account for at least six months would register their property with the city as vacant, at no cost. Then police and code enforcement officers would closely monitor the properties for signs of vandalism, trespassing or neglect, Hitchcock said.
Fees: Property owners with buildings unoccupied for a year or longer would pay the city a fee for inspections. Properties vacant less than two years would be inspected once every three months. Those vacant between two and four years would be inspected every two months and those vacant four years or longer would be inspected monthly, according to documents given to the City Council.
Arlington's proposed annual inspection fees range from at least $250 for a building left vacant at least one year, to more than $1,000 for those left vacant five years or longer, city documents show. The fees are designed to make the inspection program self-sustaining.
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