Under a new ordinance recently sponsored by Mayor Ashton Hayward and passed by the Pensacola City Council, residents of west Pensacola will be granted a reprieve from the visual assault of two dilapidated properties on Navy Boulevard. Last week a crew of City workers and contractors removed over 34 tons of debris from the two properties, including two boats, two recreational vehicles, and truckloads of trash, overgrown shrubs, and other debris.* The property owners, currently facing foreclosure from commercial lenders, will be assessed fines to cover the cost of the cleanup of the property and disposal of the trash, under the tougher new beautification program championed by Mayor Ashton Hayward.

The properties, located near the intersection of Navy Boulevard and Pace Boulevard, have been vacant for years and have amassed numerous code violations and fines. Prior to the tougher code enforcement ordinances passed this summer, the City had limited options for addressing the citizen complaints about the property. Steve Wineki, Administrative Officer for Code Enforcement, said that prior to the new laws, property owners would just let fines accrue and never actually clean up the property in question.

"We started to realize, especially with so many properties in foreclosure or vacant and abandoned, that property owners no longer had any interest in keeping their abandoned property clean. They were just letting the fines rack up because, in my opinion, they were just planning to sell the property as soon as they could anyway. But that didn't help the surrounding neighborhood, which was still having to deal with this eyesore on a daily basis," said Wineki. "With the new ordinances sponsored by the Mayor, and passed by the Council, we can actually go in and clean up the property, and add the cost of those actions to a special assessment on the property. That way we're helping the neighborhood, and eventually, when that property sells, the taxpayers will get paid back for that cleanup effort."

According to the new ordinance, the City now has the authority to remove "nuisances," or abandoned personal property, such as inoperable vehicles, boats, appliances, or personal items exposed to the elements, such as a couch or other non-yard furniture from vacant or abandoned property. Decisions for the abatement process are made on a case-by-case basis, and typically are focused on properties in foreclosure or facing foreclosure, where the resident or owner is no longer maintaining the property.

Mayor Ashton Hayward said the cleanup was an important part of creating a more attractive City, which would help with ongoing economic development efforts.

"These two properties were basically part of the western entrance to our City, and frankly they didn't make us look like a place where people would want to live or work," said Hayward. "The realities of today's real estate market and economy are tough. We're going to be dealing with more and more of these vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties, but we can't afford to let those owners off the hook. These properties that continue to sit in disrepair are an unfair burden on our city, our neighborhoods, and our businesses, and when we can, I'm going to make sure that we don't end up punishing homeowners and business owners by letting these properties continue to rot."

"Nobody wants to live or work next to an abandoned boat or schoolhouse," continued Hayward. "And nobody is going to move here or build a business here if we allow property owners - public or private - to bring down our neighborhoods and commercial areas."