Nuisance buildings back on PCB's agenda

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The Panama City Beach Council on Thursday afternoon is scheduled to discuss an ordinance designed to help the city more quickly recoup its costs of fixing up or demolishing buildings that are in major disrepair.

The ordinance states that the city can levy an assessment on the property owners to cover the city’s cost of remediating, improving or demolishing buildings that are deemed a public nuisance.

“The current ordinance recognizes the city’s ability to assess the costs of demolition, but it only does it in one place,” said City Attorney Doug Sale. “This ordinance expands and provides procedures for that.”

Although the city does have the authority to demolish nuisance structures under the current code if the owner fails to comply, there is no guarantee the city would be paid back for the costs incurred. The city has the option to place a lien on the property, but due to a Florida Supreme Court decision, code enforcement and nuisance abatement liens are now second priority to mortgages.

Sale said the city would likely be able to levy a nuisance abatement assessment under current law, but the ordinance being discussed on Thursday clearly outlines this as an option.

The city’s ordinance allowing the collection of special non-property tax assessments was worded intentionally broad, Sale said.

“It’s only been used once for stormwater on Panama City Beach,” he said. “I think it’s broad enough to cover what we’re doing, because the demolition is already in there in the current ordinance. But I think this makes it clearer. It’s better to go ahead and lay out the legislative intent.”

In December, the council moved forward on an ordinance to speed up the process to remedy nuisance properties in the area, including one the city has been battling for several months.

Development of the ordinance stemmed from concerns voiced by Councilman Keith Curry over several eyesore properties on the beach, especially the vacant Beach Club Motel on Front Beach Road.

The building was deemed unsafe by city building inspectors earlier this year, but despite weekly fines, the property owner has not answered requests to repair or demolish the motel.

“The ordinance last fall updated the nuisance abatement ordinance,” Sale said. “This ordinance updates the collection side of the coin.”

Under the new ordinance, the city would have the power to assess properties in question and place any city-incurred fines or demolition expenses on the property owner’s tax bill if the structure is declared a nuisance.

Mayor Gayle Oberst said Wednesday that there are three to six buildings in the city that are in such bad shape that they may qualify for demolition under the nuisance ordinance, but she did not want to name them.

“We have talked and talked to the people (who own them),” she said. “And if this ordinance should pass, then the process of (demolition) could take as much as a year or two years.”

She added that the demolition process could be halted in that time frame if the owners fixed up the building.

Oberst said the assessments would be used only in cases of major nuisance violations.

“It would be for a property that is partially constructed and left, or a property that has been abandoned for many years and no upkeep on it,” she said. “We do have a list. But we’ve corrected some of them already. We probably have six or eight properties that need something done about them.”

Panama Beach City Councilwoman Josie Strange said the assessment that is outlined in the new ordinance should have been levied years ago.

“I’d say there is probably 10 pieces of property (that are a nuisance),” she said.

The council meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. today at City Hall Annex at 104 S. Arnold Road.