Proposed ordinance to require registration of vacant structures

BLYTHEVILLE— Blytheville City Councilman Matt Perrin brought an ordinance concerning the registration of vacant commercial structures before the city council Monday night during the Code Enforcement portion of the meeting. A

Perrin said the ordinance, drafted by Deputy City Attorney W. Ray Nichols, is necessary “to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Blytheville.”

Perrin had first mentioned the ordinance in 2024 but didn’t bring it up again until Monday’s meeting when he gave his colleagues a copy to review.

The ordinance requires the registration of all vacant commercial structures, the submission of a vacant commercial structure plan of action and the payment of an annual registration fee in order for the City to monitor, inspect and record the condition of vacant commercial structures. The provisions in the chapter are cumulative of all city ordinances and its goal is to ensure that a vacant commercial property owner puts the commercial property to its best and highest use.”

“Referred to as vacant commercial structure registration ordinance. This is basically just that,” said Perrin. “That we want vacant commercial properties to register and there is a fee involved. Commercial buildings are supposed to support our economy, and when they sit there vacant and unused, they do not do that. We had discussed this late last year and I asked our new deputy city attorney to take a look and give us the right one.”

The ordinance calls for a $500 registration fee.

Councilwoman Barbra McAdoo-Brothers asked about the registration fee wondering if the fee was a one-time fee.

Perrin responded the $500 fee is annually, and goes up if the building remains vacant.

Section six of the ordinance states, vacant commercial structure property owners shall tender an initial registration and inspection fee of five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each vacant commercial structure,” the ordinance reads. “Subsequent annual registration renewal fees shall be five hundred dollars ($500.00) for the first and second renewal, seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) for the third and fourth renewal, and one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for the fifth and any further renewal and the aforementioned fees shall be due on a year to date basis from the date of the initial registration. The ordinance also calls for a $50 late fee if the vacant structures aren’t registered within 90 days of the renewal date.

McAdoo- Brothers followed up asking where the money would be placed once received, whether that be general funds or an allocated allotment.

Mayor Melisa Logan responded that the decision would be up to the council.

CFO John Callens added that is correct, but if it went to general funds it would go into reserves unless earmarked for something in a new account.

Councilwoman Shirley Marshall asked if anyone knew the amount of properties this ordinance would affect.

Mayor Logan replied currently about 20 properties would be affected.

Code Enforcement officer Janice Smith added, “We wanted to do it with a focus on Main Street to start off because we don’t have the manpower to do all of the city of Blytheville. So to start off we were hoping to focus on Main Street.”

McAdoo- Brothers questioned since many of the 20 properties are owned by the same entity, would the one entity be charged $500 per structure? “If multiple are defaced on the city street. That’s the responsibility that you risk leaving your property unmanned or unmanaged,” replied Logan.

Nichols added the properties may be owned by one individual, but they were all placed in different LLCs. “Legally, those are all separate entities,” explained Nichols.

Councilman Jacquin Benson asked if $500 was a reasonable amount. Perrin responded, “I would say yes.” Nichols added, “Do I think $500 is reasonable? Yes. It’s not a vacant house, it’s a commercial building… It’s to try to put something behind this. So you give a nudge, or a kick, to it. If we’re going to fix Main Street or the city of Blytheville, it needs that nudge, that kick, and needs some enforcement behind it. If we just put $50 on there then nobody cares.”

A comment was made that cost comparisons were made with other cities across America.

Nichols added they compared ordinances to ones done in Pine Bluff and a Louisiana town.

McAdoo-Brothers questioned if the ordinance was legal to enforce. “My question, as a human, is this 100 percent legal to force someone to do something to their property that they own.”

Nichols responded, “To register that as a vacant building, yes. Because as a city council, you have the power to control the city. They chose to own that building in the city of Blytheville.”

Perrin added he doesn’t think any city ever reaches the goal of zero vacant commercial buildings, but the goal is to have property owners incentive to bring their property to a place to be able to rent or run their business out of.  “Those businesses in turn will generate tax dollars, incentives that will benefit the city,” said Perrin.

McAdoo- Brothers mentioned that many of the structures are without roofs and the amount to bring these buildings up to any standard of business level would be “pretty astronomical”.

Perrin agreed one entity with 10 buildings without roofs would be astronomical, but not for 10 different people. Perrin continued by adding the ordinance reads it would affect owners with vacant properties for 90 days. He added he’d be okay amending the ordinance by putting a start date for the 90 days to begin. “To give everyone the most fair possible shape we could say, ‘vacant for 90 days beginning June 1.’ I’m happy to have a start date,” explained Perrin.

The council was informed by McAdoo-Brothers that they needed to read over and question everything in the ordinance before they started getting phone calls.

“You just know, a lot of calls. I think we need to read over this and understand it ourselves in order to express it to the people who are involved in this. Because they're gonna look at us,” McAdoo-Brothers said. “I’m just being honest, I want Main Street safe, building an active building on every business on every storefront. Like it was in my day growing up.

It was a wonderful place to live.

“But this is gonna hit some people very hard. I'm not trying to protect anyone, but the severity is going to be bad,” McAdoo-Brothers said.

Councilwoman Linda Moore asked to table the ordinance until the April meetings to have time to thoroughly read the ordinance before making any decision.

Councilman R. L. Jones added conversations with property owners needed to happen before adopting the ordinance. “All those buildings (owners) need to know about this ordinance before we adopt this and make it law,” said Jones.

Perrin added, “So, we're going to talk about this next month. All those people that you need to reach out to remind them that these meetings are public, and they’re welcome to come.”

After a brief discussion, Executive Director of the Mississippi County Chamber of Commerce Liz Smith said, “I would commend the city on taking that kind of stride.”

After Perrin mentioned another issue concerning code enforcement, Logan stood up advocating for the council to pass the ordinance. “So, um, I also like to say, at some point, in order for a city to grow, we have to look like the growth that we want to attract. And in all honesty, it's not just downtown, that’s falling apart. It's buildings all over the city,” Logan pleaded. “

And so we have to start somewhere to set the example that at this point in time, we mean business, and it's time for us to do what we say we are going to do. We have to put some power behind our words because right now, it's just words. It's just words. The city wants you to clean up your property.

Logan continued, “My plea is to the council, take a month, review it. But please I ask of you, don’t let this sit…But I can’t wait another 10 years for people to get their lives together. The city needs to be cleaned up today.”

The ordinance was tabled until the April meeting.