And
behold, I shall be a blight upon the land, and everything I touch shall wither
and die. Blight- "Batman Beyond: Meltdown (#1.5)" (1999)
By
Leslie A. Butler, The Law Offices of Leslie A. Butler PLLC and Ravi K. Nigam,
The Law Offices of Ravi K. Nigam, PC
INTRODUCTION
In 2013, the Michigan Legislature further
addressed a growing problem of blighted properties by passing Public Acts
188-192 of 2013 ("Acts") to provide additional enforcement tools to
municipalities beyond the tools previously provided through the Home Rule City
Act.
MODIFICATIONS
The Home Rule City Act authorizes certain
municipalities to pass ordinances to address blight. The Acts provide additional
methods to combat blight including new criminal penalties and additional civil
penalties. The Acts lower the population threshold in the eligibility criteria
for municipalities that can utilize these tools. The Acts exempt
government-sponsored enterprises, financial institutions, mortgage servicers,
or credit union service organizations that become the owner or property after
foreclosure or after taking a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
CONSEQUENCES
Property owners with multiple properties in
the same municipality could be unpleasantly surprised when work at one property
is not allowed when another property has been found blighted by the
municipality. This is due to the Acts permitting municipalities to make any
property owner who is delinquent in paying a fine or costs for blight
obligations ineligible for rezoning, site approval or other zoning
authorization. The Acts also permit a municipality to make such a person
ineligible for a building permit, a certificate of use and occupancy or a
variance.
POTENTIAL PITFALL
Practitioners assisting commercial property
owners whose property has been tagged as blighted must consider another potential
problem with the remediation or redevelopment of the property that could occur
in certain municipalities. Some municipalities apparently will only remove the
blight tag after the building is torn down and the slab and any parking lot
removed from the subject property. From the developer's viewpoint, it is often
desirable to keep both the concrete slab and the parking lot in place as it can
expedite redevelopment and even decrease the costs of redevelopment as the slab
and parking lot could be reused or, at a minimum, be used to keep the heavy
equipment necessary for rebuilding from subsiding the surrounding ground. The
new Acts could give municipalities more leverage in negotiations with
developers when addressing these issues.
CURRENT STATUS
According to the authors’ sources within Michigan, there has
been no current municipal movement to amend or pass ordinances under these new Acts.
However, that may change within the next six months as communities address
their blight issues and seek to utilize these new tools.
