Derelict properties attract city’s scrutiny

They haunt the city with their fading signs, shaded windows and large signs advertising they’re available for rent. They remind the city of what they used to be — perhaps an auto shop, a food store or professional offices. As the businesses and neighborhoods around them continue to move forward, these buildings stay trapped as if buried in a time capsule.

The Community Development Commission wants the city to do a little cleaning and clear the dust off these aging and vacant buildings, arguing that they’re an eyesore, a lure for criminals and a drain on the local economy. Fixing them up and filling them with new businesses could help rejuvenate their neighborhoods.

“There’s a feeling that surveying housing conditions alone is not getting the job done,” City Planning Director Tim Teddy said.

There are at least 20 vacant and/or dilapidated commercial properties in the central city. Teddy’s concerns are about the visual impact they have on surrounding neighborhoods and about the loss of sales tax revenue that vibrant businesses could be generating.

“Space going unused is revenue forgone,” Teddy said, noting that while the buildings are idle, the city still incurs the cost of maintaining the infrastructure that serves them.

The buildings in question include deteriorated structures with cracking paint and empty shelves, such as the former location of Clovers Natural Food on Business Loop 70, and recently vacant properties in attractive commercial areas such as Broadway downtown. Most of the vacant buildings are owned by building management companies. Representatives of several management companies declined to comment; others could not be reached.

Addressing the problem will be a bit tricky. The Community Development Commission hopes to amend the city’s Consolidated Plan — a document that establishes long-range strategies for community development and housing programs — to allow the use of federal Community Development Block Grant money to address problems with vacant and dilapidated commercial property. The Consolidated Plan now allows that CDBG money to be used only for addressing dilapidated residential property that is in violation of city codes.

The amendments proposed to the Columbia City Council don’t call for tearing down structures and building new ones. Instead, they would allow the city’s Neighborhood Response Team to manage the commercial properties in the same way they manage deteriorating homes. Currently, the response team funds part of the building inspections and covers all the cost of sending courtesy letters to residents or property owners whose homes are in violation of city ordinances.

“The Neighborhood Response Team walks through the area,” senior building inspector Brenda Canaday said. “They visit with the people if they come up and show people the general concern. Sometimes people don’t really know what a violation is, like peeling paint or a crack in the window.”

The Community Development Commission hopes to establish a Commercial Impact Area that would be bounded on the north by Interstate 70, on the south by Broadway, on the west by Stadium Boulevard and on the east by Conley Road. That area is much larger than the existing Neighborhood Response Team’s zone.

Canaday said the problems that exist with vacant homes also occur on vacant commercial property.

“People start parking wrong on the property or parking there because they know it is vacant,” she said.

The city formed the Neighborhood Response Team in 1999 to coordinate various departments’ efforts to improve deteriorating neighborhoods. Neighborhood organizations felt that residents needed additional motivation to repair their properties.

While the development commission and city officials see a rising need to address vacant commercial buildings, others aren’t convinced there’s a big problem yet. Officer Chris Kelley of the Columbia Police Department’s Community Action Team said there’s not an immediate concern about crime around vacant commercial property in the Neighborhood Response Team’s area.

“The biggest issue for us is vacant residential property,” Kelley said. “The homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes break into the vacant residences.”

Linda Rootes of the North-Central Neighborhood Association said the problem isn’t a huge concern for her and her neighbors.

“In the North-Central Neighborhood, we have very few vacant commercial properties that aren’t in the process of being rented or renovated. ... If there is a problem,I would like the city to address it,” Rootes said.

Rootes said she’s “very much in favor” of expanding the work of the Neighborhood Response Team, which she said has already had a positive affect on residential property in her area.

“We had a few houses that were in bad shape in our neighborhood,” Rootes said. “I think the city has been doing an excellent job of trying to increase property standards.”

A public hearing on the proposed amendments to the Consolidated Plan is set for Oct. 2.