Blight will cost property owners in San Francisco
By: Joshua Sabatini
Examiner Staff Writer
October 29, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The City plans to penalize owners of dilapidated properties, or even do their work and charge them for it.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted legislation Tuesday empowering the Department of Public Works to ramp up enforcement against owners of blighted properties.
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval said he introduced the legislation “in response to a growing number of blighted and dilapidated properties in my district, but also across The City.”
Sandoval said there is even a two-block stretch of blighted properties in the Ocean View and Ingleside neighborhoods. The properties have become “an attractive nuisance for various illegal crimes.”
The law empowers city officials to hit property owners with up to $1,000 in fines for violations, and, if left unabated, The City could correct the blight and bill the property owner for the work.
The legislation is modeled after laws in Oakland and San Jose.
Under the law, a property is considered blighted for various reasons, including dead trees, debris or if the paint on a building’s exterior is worn off. Other examples include deterioration of the building’s exterior stairs, or defaced or broken windows.
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
In other action
- In an 11-0 vote, the intent to form a Tourism Improvement District was adopted, which would fund marketing The City and improving the Moscone Center.
- A resolution was adopted by an 11-0 vote urging the state to increase penalties for illegal use of disabled placards, and increase oversight on their issuance.
- A request was made to draft legislation requiring the Recreation and Park Department to use only reclaimed water for irrigation by 2013.
