Roanoke begins clean-up push
Roanoke’s mayor and city council are determined to address unkempt and dangerous property and clean up the city, starting this month.
Nuisance officer A.J. Johnson is selecting unkempt property such as overgrown lots; a house sagging in on itself as the roof caves in and a house with the back falling off to begin the process that may eventually lead to bringing the owners before the city council to explain why they have not improved, cleaned up or demolished their property.
One of the properties in the legal pipeline is the “Roach Motel,” as he called it, the old Ranch Motel on LaFayette Highway that residents remember as once a good restaurant as well as motel.
About a year ago a review of the property saw open doors, missing roofs, glass and trash everywhere.
The first 10 to be addressed this month are among the worst, Johnson said. But at this point downtown is not included.
The city council passed amendments to its zoning ordinance at its July 30 meeting. The mandatory building permits will help keep the city appraised of construction plans and consequently stop projects contrary to city or private interests or make sure improper construction is not allowed.
“We’re just going to do the best we can,” Mayor Spec Bonner said. “One thing about this amendment to the zoning ordinance that most people don’t want, it will help us clean up downtown,” he said.
“We’ve been having complaints forever and ever and ever. We’ve made attempts to clean it up but hit block walls. The town is a mess,” he said.
While it is true people from other areas are dismayed by the trash on lots, overgrown lots and falling-down buildings, that is not why Roanoke is finally being cleaned up, he said.
The council wants to clean up the town and make it look better, he said.
Johnson said among the initial 10: “I’ve sent a certified letter and said the property doesn’t comply with the ordinance. They have 10 days from the date they received the letter to contact me in writing or by phone saying what they are going to do to clean up or demolish the property,” Johnson said. If they don’t respond he turns it over to Ben Hand, city prosecutor.
Hand sends a certified letter asking the owner to attend the next council meeting. At that meeting the owner is asked to give an explanation of why the property has not been cleaned up and give a plan of action to bring it up to code, Johnson said.
“If they don’t come to the council meeting the matter will be turned over to the council to abate (or condemn) the property,” he said.
If the city cleans up the property the cost of the clean-up will be added to the homeowner’s property taxes or the property can be sold to pay for the clean-up, the officer said.
Johnson admits it can be a lengthy process, possibly up to 80 days.
“Most of the property has been neglected for a long time. This is nothing new,” he said.
Of the 10 houses slated to come up this month none is downtown commercial property but some are old commercial property not in use such as an old building/pool hall on Government Street where the roof is falling in, he said.
Most of the buildings are not repairable. Some owners have already been notified and corrected problems on their property, Johnson said. Others are at some point in the process. He expected to get some information from Hand last week, he said.
“A lot of them are out-of-town owners with the property passed on through the generations but they do pay the taxes each year,” he said.
Most of the properties coming up this month have out-of-town owners, he said. He is using 2007 tax information to send letters but they’re not responding, he said. He is not having letters returned either, he said, which would indicate the address is correct.
He is taking a self-study course and hopes to pass tests and be certified by the first of the year, he said. Once he has certification he will attack the problem of downtown businesses that are not only eyesores but dangerous.
The list of 35 already compiled will be a growing list, he said.
