Croissant Park Neighbor Exposes Distressed Property Problems

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City's distressed properties prompt appeal for action 

DON CRINKLAW Forum Publishing Group  1:11 PM EDT, June 21, 2012

Fort Lauderdale residents of District IV and city officials recently met to find a solution to the large number of foreclosed and dilapidated properties sprinkled among city neighborhoods. The meeting took place largely because of Croissant Park resident Karen Doyle, who contacted District IV Commissioner Romney Rogers about the problem.  "A lot of [city staff] have been working on the foreclosure issue for a long time," Rogers said. 

"It's been on the commission's agenda at least twice.  "Please don't think I will go quietly away," Doyle said at the meeting. "This is too big a challenge for anyone to handle alone. We need collective input, because the problem will not go quietly away, either." "We've identified over 1,000 abandoned propertiescitywide," said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Jorge Maura, offering insight into why so many citizen complaints have gotten 

few results.  "We respond to the reason we were sent on the call, not to what generated the call. We can go to a home 60 times on anything from narcotics to prostitution. But the problem is that the property is abandoned and nobody's checking up on it." Maura suggested that a "new municipal ordinance is needed to create a time frame. The owner will have so many days to bring the property into compliance, or we'll take legal action." 

Creation of a fresh ordinance is an effort that "has a lot of moving parts," Rogers noted.  

The first step, he said, is putting together an inventory of abandoned properties and "code enforcement will begin the process of gathering data." Then it needs to be determined who owns the distressed properties – a person, bank or investment group – and that isn't necessarily a simple matter. Doyle observed that other cities with a similar problem have outsourced property searches to private companies. "Let the owners know that they will have to register the properties with the city," Rogers said. "There will be a charge, say $150. That adds up. It will pay for a lot." And the creation of legal sanctions could help end the properties' drift into disrepair. 

"We can have a bunch of wonderful meetings," said Marilyn Mammano, president of the Harbordale Homeowners Association and acting head of the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations. "Let's talk about citizens' involvement." She also recommended creating a task force to help the situation. While everyone awaits the next step, Doyle said, "nothing much can come of this unless somebody – like a city commissioner – makes sure it doesn't get the bureaucratic runaround. That can only happen if citizens act as watchdogs.  "Call the city, write the commissioners," Doyle suggested. "They can only move now if there's a complaint."  

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