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Lisbon mayor wants change to vacant building reporting

LISBON — Mayor Peter Wilson wants village council to consider changing the new vacant building ordinance by scrapping the self-reporting requirement and giving village officials the inspection authority instead.

The 2018 ordinance requires property owners in the downtown business district with chronically vacant storefronts to make some effort to find a tenant or buyer for their building. The ordinance requires the owner of the vacant building register with the village at a cost of $200, which is waived if they place a sign in the window saying it is for rent or for sale and a phone number.

Wilson, who opposed the ordinance when he was on council, favors using the version first proposed by Town Center Associates, the consultant hired by the village to help revitalize the downtown. TCA’s proposed vacant building ordinance gives Lisbon the authority to cite property owners for failing to comply. The property owners would have 45 days to comply or face being assessed an annual “monitoring” fee.

Currently, 22 of the 87 downtown storefronts are vacant. The vacancy law has been in place for the past 12 months, and Wilson does not believe it is working very well. The zoning inspector has yet to mail out letters to property owners because they have yet to create a self-reporting and tracking system

“Self reporting never works, unfortunately,” he said, which is why Wilson believes TCA’s simpler version is the better option. “I’ve met with (the zoning inspector) and he agreed it’s not workable, so I want council to revisit the issue.”

Back in 2017, Wilson wanted council to adopt TCA’s version of the vacant building ordinance but they deferred to the previous administration, which used it as a template and made changes he believes made compliance more complicated and harder to enforce.

The companion piece of legislation revising the village’s building maintenance code appears to be paying dividends. TCA reported in September 2017, when the village first began enforcing the law, 58 of the 87 downtown properites had a combined 193 violations. Thirty buildings today have a combined 95 violations. “Just look at the downtown. It’s looking better … People are being made to (perform basic maintenance) on their buildings and keeping them up to code, and that’s all we’re asking,” Wilson said.

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