The city of Pine Bluff has hired a code enforcement officer to help expedite blight removal in the Urban Renewal Agency areas, addressing a concern that agency officials expressed earlier this year.
In January, the agency's executive director, Maurice Taggart, projected at least 100 blight removals would happen in 2021 with demolitions fully scheduled through the first quarter. Rain and snow slowed down the process, postponing many scheduled demolitions.
In March, Taggart proposed a resolution that would allow his agency to take a stronger hand in the inspection process, which is normally handled by the city's Inspection and Zoning Department.
Officials said the inspection process from the city was slowing the agency's efforts to remove blight considering the Inspection and Zoning Department had a limited crew to cover the entire city.
Instead of moving forward with the resolution, collaborative efforts between the agency and the city's Inspection and Zoning Department resulted in a new hire who Karla Williams, director of Inspection and Zoning, said started three weeks ago.
"He is only going to work within the urban renewal area," said Williams, who added that the new hire is still in the training phase but has identified and written up several properties on 30th Avenue. "If we have collaborative efforts with everybody, if we want to concentrate on a certain block area, we can have everybody come into his area and work."
But no matter how aggressive the effort is on the Inspection and Zoning end, Williams said, there could be several reasons the demolition process is delayed.
"Once we identify a house as a nuisance, we do our inspection and make a determination," said Williams, who pointed out that if a house is repairable, a 60-day notice is given, and if it's nonrepairable, then 45 days are given.
"Once the time is up, depending on if the owner receives the notification, the condemnation process can proceed," said Williams. "If it is not received, then we have to renotify by running it in the paper consecutively for four weeks."
According to Williams, after the notice has run in the newspaper, then her office can proceed with the process, which can be stopped at any time due to an appeal by the property owner.
"When we send a letter, they can always come back and appeal our decision," said Williams. "If they want to repair it, that will stop the process. If no appeals, then we can go forward with the condemnation."
A final notice of condemnation is sent to the property owner, who at that point can once again appeal to the Pine Bluff City Council to give the owner more time to either tear down the property or repair it, according to Williams.
"If they don't appeal, then it goes through the process, but there are a couple of different avenues as to when the process can stop," said Williams.
With no appeals from start to finish, the process would take approximately two and half months, but Williams said that more than likely, an appeal happens somewhere through the timeline.
"Notifications, giving people time, running it in the paper -- and even the condemned process is run in the paper as a notification -- is all a part of the process," said Williams. "We give several different avenues of notifications. We post the notices on the house and notify the property owners or family members."
Williams said that once a property is condemned, a resolution is posted on the home. After 10 days, if the owner has not responded, the city has the right to go in and eliminate the nuisance.
Previously, Taggart said the success of Urban Renewal and the city of Pine Bluff were interdependent.
"An intentional effort to unify all stakeholders throughout the city is necessary to bring about demonstrated progress for the benefit of all of our citizens," said Taggart. "This is a pledge we must make if we are serious about total revitalization. We are stronger together."
During the agency's April meeting, members set high expectations for Taggart to reach over 100 blight removals through September since those months typically have drier weather.
Williams said the addition of a dedicated enforcement officer for the urban renewal area will definitely help out, but she again said the process can slow down the demolition of the property and that the agency shouldn't set a number for blight removals.
"We can go out there and identify 10 houses at one time or may get three or four that go through the entire process at the same time, but there are so many avenues where the process can stop," she said. "They'll eventually go through, but you just can't say they are all going to go through at the same time. That's just not the case."