City Wants Owners Of Vacant Buildings To Take Better Care Of The Buildings

Since January, 10 vacant buildings have gone up in flames.

To prevent future fires in vacant building – and other crimes – City Council is cracking down on owners of vacant buildings.

City officials also said these buildings are a drain on taxpayers.

But some property owners said they’re being penalized, even though they’re responsible owners.

“When you leave your building vacant and blighted, it draws vandals to your property,” City Rep. Susie Byrd said.

Not just vandals. According to city officials, vacant buildings invite crimes such as drug use, arson, and rape.

That’s why city officials want to make property owners take better care of their buildings.

“If the properties are vacant, there’s no income,” said Sharon Haddad of the Institute of Real Estate Management. “How are they, where are they going to get the money to pay for this?”

City Rep. Eddie Holguin spoke out against some of the requirements city officials want.

“Now you’re forcing things that I don’t think the government has purview over its citizens,” Holguin said. “I mean, you’re telling them ‘you have to get an alarm system, you have to get insurance, you have to get a water system.’ It’s not my place to tell people they have to do that, it’s their property.”

Byrd disagreed. “Mr. Holguin, to your point, what we’re doing right now is forcing the neighbor to put up with in their neighborhood and I think it is very reasonable to shift the cost from the neighborhood and the taxpayer to the property owner, for their blight, for their neglect,” Byrd said.

Neglect, that according to the city, makes them use tax dollars on putting out fires at vacant buildings and responding to crime calls.

But real estate owners said this is just an unfair cost that shouldn’t be directed their way.

“These property owners who are having problems already, trying to rent their space, lease their space, or even people trying to rent their home, are going to have to raise their rent fees,” said Candice Diaz, of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The City of El Paso itself has 10 vacant buildings out of 5,600 vacant properties total in the city.

And they’re not exempt from the rules that are being proposed. If the ordinance passes in two months, then they’ll decide exactly what constitutes a vacant building. So far, they agree that if a building is 60-percent unused, then it’s vacant.