Cedar Rapids takes on vacant, neglected properties

CEDAR RAPIDS - Dora Lorenc and Bill Ingledue have created something of a fortress paradise with a sprawling garden, strawberry and raspberry patches and birdhouses on a street of working-class homes on the south side.

The retirees - she's a horticulturist among other things and he's a handyman - live next to a creek, the approach to which is city property but maintained by the couple with a hillside lawn and line of lilies.

In trade, 'We get treated like VIPs” by the city, Lorenc said.

However, the city's appreciation doesn't extend across the street to the ramshackle house at 1227 20th Ave. SW with a 'Do Not Occupy” placard, declaring it is 'unsafe or unsanitary and unfit for human habitation.”

The date on the city placard: Dec. 22, 2010.

Cedar Rapids' neighborhood revitalization efforts have been trying for nearly a decade to do more for the ugliest of vacant and neglected homes and properties - and the 4 1/2 year old placard at 1227 20th Ave. SW is an indication that there's more to do.

In recognition of that, the City Council this week approved an addition to an ordinance giving the city more power to take on vacant and neglected properties.

Building Services Director Kevin Ciabatti estimated that 70 to 80 homes likely will qualify for a list, He said 1227 20th Ave. SW is a good candidate for it.

The change will require owners of vacant, neglected properties to register with the city, pay an annual fee - likely under $300 on average - and submit a written plan to repair the property and bring it into compliance with code.

Ciabatti said a property will land on the vacant and neglected registry if for six months or more in any year it is unoccupied and unsecured; unoccupied and secured by boarded-up windows or other means not used in the design of the house; unoccupied with code violations; or unoccupied and declared dangerous.

Properties under renovation with applicable city permits will be exempt. Vacant and unoccupied homes that are maintained won't make the list either, he said.

However, the city will head to court when owners do not cooperate. Once there, Ciabatti said he anticipates that judges will order the owner to submit to the inspection requirement of the law. Often now, judges don't permit inspections, so the city can't report the extent of problems to the court, he said.

In developing the new plan over the last year, he said he worked with representatives of neighborhood associations, the Cedar Rapids Area Association of Realtors, the city's Historic Preservation Commission, the city's Community Development Department and police. He also reviewed similar ordinances from some 20 cities.

Council member Monica Vernon said many of the worst vacant and neglected properties in Cedar Rapids pose a danger to the neighborhood, and she said that the city has 'baby-sat” them and not pushed owners to do something for too long.

Council member Scott Olson, a commercial Realtor, said he hears from constituents about abandoned properties. He said the new ordinance 'didn't cross a line” to include too many properties, which he said was a concern of Realtors. But it will have a 'dramatic impact on neighborhoods,” he said.

The push against vacant and neglected properties comes 21 months after the city put in place a nuisance property abatement program called SAFE-CR, which compiles points against properties that get certain kinds of police calls or have too many code violations. The program, though, has not had the reach to impact many vacant, unoccupied homes.

Emily Muhlbach, communications coordinator for the Development Services Department, said the house at 1227 20th Ave. SW is similar to one at 1436 Sierra Dr. NE where owners have died, banks are in control and the city has watched the property decline.

Out on 20th Avenue SW, Lorenc and Ingledue know about the travails of the home across the street at 1227 20th Ave. SW. The couple said they called the city a few years ago when the door was swinging open and the smell of gas was apparent outside.

Ingledue said he trapped six raccoons on the property and said possums had the run of it. He's found dead cats there and said vines grow on interior walls.

'I try not to look,” Lorenc said.