Wednesday morning, Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela addressed the House Judiciary Committee for Local Government on the Rehabilitation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Buildings Act. Mayor Wukela, along with six others, urged the committee to pass the bill so it could hit the house floor for discussion this legislative year.
There are two versions of the bill, one in the House and Senate, and both are similar so they're called companion bills. The House's version was introduced by Representative Garry Smith of Greenville County. Smith says the bill would give cities recourse for dealing with abandoned buildings and homes.
"It's about offering and giving cities and counties a second option, another option, a little flexibility in how they deal with abandoned and dilapidated structures," said Rep. Smith.
Smith says right now the only option for many municipalities is to send notification to the property owner and if they fail to respond, then there's condemnation. He says no one likes to condemn a property and deal with it in that regard.
Smith argues his bill allows cities and counties to petition the court to appoint a receiver which will then go in and make improvements to the property at their own expense. The receiver can be a private developer or non-profit organization.
The city or county does not take possession of property like it would in an eminent domain situation.
"You're dealing with it on more of a positive sort of a situation as opposed to a negative situation. When you're dealing with it in condemnation, what you're doing you're condemning the property and going in and taking possession of it and tearing it down," Smith said, "With a receivership, you can take and deal with it by going to the courts having something positive done to it, having it rehabilitated, having it fixed up, having something done with it that will be a value to the community."
Mayor Wukela told the subcommittee there are more than 2,500 abandoned and dilapidated properties in Florence. He says the buildings and homes have become troublesome in recent years. "These properties present what amounts to a very real and present danger to the community. They're havens for drugs and gangs and other crime. They're often set a fire by vagrants, " said Wukela.
He says they've exhausted all efforts to reach many of the property owners.
"Often times these properties represent so called heir property in which no owner can be readily identifiable," Wukela added.
He says in most cases the properties are uninhabitable, unable to market and a danger to the community.
Wukela believes the bill is a step in the right direction to help him clean up abandoned buildings and homes in Florence.
"The receiver can be a developer or non-profit who's willing to come in spend their own dollars to repair the property, return the property to a marketable condition," he said.
Mayor Wukela says the bill gives the owner the opportunity to redeem the property during the process of rehabilitation.
The subcommittee also heard from bankers, realtors, contractors and officials from the SC Municipal Association about the bill. They all agree it's a decent piece of legislation, but argue there needs to be some changes to improve it.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee will hold another discussion on the bill before they vote to reject it or send it to the full House for debate.
