PG Government Tearing Down Blighted Houses: Good or Bad Idea?

[Fast GTO]

Tear them down if they are a hazard.

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by pgtvatitans

Prince George’s tearing down blighted, foreclosed houses, stepping up code enforcement - The Washington Post



Someone in the comment section of the article made a great point, how far will the government be allowed to go in determining if a property should be tore down or not? That is extremely important because otherwise the government could just tear down houses without reasonable cause.

What's the alternative? I'm pretty blaze about zoning for example I think folks should build what they want with a few exception ( no strip clubs near elementary schools for example) but crappy homes affect other people and the county it needs to be done.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by adelphi_sky

I think there would be errors on the end of leaving a few properties standing that COULD be demolished. If I'm not mistaken, it costs money to demolish a home and prepare the land for a new house or vegetation. I don't see the county wasting money demolishing properties that don't need to be.

Personally, I'm glad for this initiative, there's a house in my neighborhood that has been adding a room for 15 years. lol It looks like a bulldozer chopped half the house down. It's all over grown with vegetation. There has been many meetings on what to do, but since there are no HOAs, the owners can pretty much leave it like it is. With this new law, they would HAVE to do something in a reasonable amount of time or have it torn down. WE've been lucky that it hasn't become a spot for prostitution or drug dealing.

Originally Posted by pgtvatitans

This is definitely my concern. I think the county really want to completely re-do certain areas and some places they can use this as an excuse. Places around National Harbor, Eastover, and maybe even some other inside the beltway locations come to mind. This would really lay the ground works for gentrifying inside the beltway.

I'll address a couple things:

I don't know which Property Maintenance Code Prince George's uses, there are a half a dozen with the most common being the International Property Maintenance Code, but whichever one it is it's going to have a definition of blight.

A government can't just go in and bulldoze a property (that changes a bit if there's been a fire). There have to be multiple notifications, all with time frames to begin coming into compliance. The whole process of citations can be stopped by the owner pulling a demo or repair permit. Those are usually issued for a year. The owner then does nothing for a year. The process begins again, permits are pulled again, etc.

The government can go to Court (usually District but the owner can have it kicked up to Circuit). That stops any attempt by the government to demo and any citations.

The Court can order the demo or for the parties to start the process again. This can take years (we just had one here that took 8 years to resolve). Eventually the house comes down or is repaired.

The cost to the government to demo is charged to the owner on the property tax bill.

The above is the basic short course.

The time frames and process are all set out by COMAR.