As Richmond Fire Department chief, Jerry Purcell knew the danger boarded windows on vacant houses posed for firefighters. He began working on a shuttering ordinance to remedy the situation.
Now, as a Richmond Common Council member, Purcell has presented an ordinance that amends the city’s unsafe building code for council consideration. On Feb. 10, council conducted a special Committee of the Whole meeting to begin digesting and improving the ordinance.
Not only do Richmond’s vacant buildings create danger, but they are detrimental to neighborhoods, deterring new investment and decreasing property values. Purcell agreed that some might see government overreach in requirements to register and maintain vacant properties.
“In a perfect society, this may be so,” Purcell said, “but it is evident that we do not live in that world.”
The vacant structures program begins with owners of structures vacant at least 30 days or vacant with a citation or notice of property abatement registering those structures with the city. The annual registration fee would be $150 for residential properties with up to three units or $300 for non-residential properties.
The owner would need to provide a local contact liaison, secure the structure, carry insurance, and maintain the building and property. The amendment spells out in detail how a structure must be secured using clear board to improve safety for first responders, who can then see inside.
“The whole object of clear-boarding is to make the property not closed up in a way that people can squat [or] start fires inside without anybody being able to see or notice it,” Purcell said.
Violations would result in fines. The ordinance lists the fines up to the state maximum of $2,500 for a first offense and $7,500 for additional offenses, but the fine schedule would likely be lower.
Registrations would go to the city’s infrastructure and development department, then the code enforcement department would inspect registered properties. Decisions would be made about the structures’ viability.
Council members asked questions and considered additional issues, such as clearing snow and ice, something that’s law now but is not enforced. Council member Justin Burkhardt said leaving snow and ice restricts some residents’ travel, so the city can’t just say it’s an impossible issue.
“I know that’s not a community that I want my kids growing up in,” Burkhardt said. “I know that’s not a community that’s going to be able to recruit easily new families, new businesses. My plea is that if we use this as a jumping-off point, a starting point to say it’s important to us to look at these fine details, it’s important to us to find a way where we don’t block pathways, but we remove barriers for the future of our city.”
Council members asked how many buildings could potentially be impacted by the amendments and how many buildings the city boarded up and demolished last year. There were no immediate answers, but Mayor Ron Oler said the city could provide answers after some research.
In April 2023, the city reported carrying out cleanup or demolition on nearly 70 properties through 2021, 2022 and early 2023, at a taxpayer cost of more than $1.2 million.
“When we tear these down, we are tearing down our tax base,” council member Doug Goss said. “I think we also need some sort of program to prevent the blight from happening just as much as we have a program to deal with the blight.”
Purcell said that when buildings are demolished, the vacant lots could be provided to developers who demonstrate they have a plan and the financial capability to execute the plan. Council member Lucinda Wright said some abandoned buildings simply need someone willing to work and improve them to provide the city with affordable housing.
“We need to be proactive and work together and get the job done for the people who put us in these seats,” Wright said.
The big question, of course, is how much the city must spend to execute the program, because council members agree it’s not worth enacting if it won’t be enforced. Purcell said South Bend allocated $6 million when it began a similar program.
The amendment was referred to the public safety and finance committees for further study.
“There is an end cost to this if we’re going to follow through, then you have to figure out where those funds are going to come from, and then how you’re going to produce those funds,” Purcell said. “It is going to be expensive in the end if we want to clean up the city and the blight … if that’s our priority.”
A version of this article appeared in the February 19 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.