CLEARLAKE >> The City of Clearlake is targeting vacant lots, with city officials looking to develop a Vacant Property Ordinance defining the obligations of property owners.
Although the city has a generalized Public Nuisance Ordinance covering property upkeep, issues arise when a lot is left empty or the owner passes away. Clearlake has struggled to control the resulting wave of trespassing, squatting, littering and general damage.
“As part of our process for transforming Clearlake we instituted Code Enforcement, which has been working quite a bit in terms of cleaning up a lot of debris and general nuisances of the city,” Clearlake Finance Director Chris Becnel said. “The third leg of the significant improvement of the city is now to begin to deal with a lot of the buildings.”
Aspects under consideration for the ordinance include requiring the owners of vacant properties to secure any structure within short time of its vacancy, to keep an undeveloped property free of unruly brush or vegetation, to post no trespassing signs and fencing, and to notify Clearlake Police Department.
“If we want to make a difference in the terms of property values in this city then we have to deal with the landscaping as well as the property itself,” Becnel said. “We can’t solve the problem until we solve the problem that has been 30 years in the making but we can certainly change the dynamic moving forward.
During the recession in 2008, several cities adopted ordinances similar to the one under consideration in Clearlake in order to protect foreclosed homes from damage or falling into the nuisance category. These cities include places like Richmond, Vallejo and West Hollywood.
Direction given to city staff from the council involved fixing boards or shutters to keep people out of empty structures, the continuing maintenance of a property and an increase in fees for violations.
Vice Mayor Bruno Sabatier said looking for a place to rent is difficult these days, not only in the city but around the county. He pointed out that cleaning up lots could encourage people to rent or buy. Establishin a fee would get the attention of the owners and cause them to keep track of their property.
“We would rather have someone living in the house consistently rather than have a vacant home or an undeveloped property and it gets their attention that they need to start taking care of their properties or else there are other consequences,” Sabatier said.
Council Member Phil Harris said people creating public nuisances to vacant lots is a huge problem in the community and create blight, are a fire danger and health and safety issues.
“Anything we do to add teeth to our existing policies is fantastic. My feeling is we should do everything allowable within the confines of the law to give us as much tools as we can to the staff to address these issues,” Harris said.
