Florence weighs options to fix vacant properties

Florence is considering options — including property registries, neighborhood cleanups and a livability court — to solve the problems caused by abandoned and vacant buildings in the city.

Florence City Council is awaiting city staff recommendations on the most feasible options of those presented at a Thursday council work session.

City officials said 2,426 of the city’s roughly 15,000 parcels are vacant and abandoned.

“I am lit up about this, as I have been since the campaign,” Mayor Stephen J. Wukela told council.

Councilman Ed Robinson, however, said he’s opposed to the possibility the city might be “just taking poor people’s property.”

“I am adamantly opposed to this. ... It is totally out of character for the city of Florence,” Robinson said.

Robinson said after the work session that during a previous council meeting, he spoke hypothetically about owning property that was “clean” and “boarded up” but not habitable. He said he was concerned about his constituents who might want to repair their property but not have the money to do so.

He also said a group of east Florence citizens would present another option to council at a meeting Monday, although he wouldn’t elaborate on what the suggestion might involve.

“We’re going to consider all the options,” Wukela said. “We’re not going to take anything off the table.”

Florence Community Services Director Scotty Davis presented the following suggestions to council:

A vacant building registry, in which property owners pay a fee for a building to remain empty

A rental property registry, which also could include fees at council’s discretion

Creating green spaces on problem properties obtained by the city

Business license fees for landlords

A maintenance registry for landlords, which would include local numbers for maintenance workers who would fix problems that might arise on a property

Use of a “rule to show cause,” as in Myrtle Beach, where property owners must give city council a reason why they haven’t complied with an order following a violation

Neighborhood sweeps to clean up vacant or abandoned parcels

A livability court to handle property codes violations

Ordinance updates

Florence city ordinances establish fines of as much as $500 or 30 days in jail for property owners who don’t comply with orders to handle buildings that are unsafe, overgrown or unfit for human habitation.

Wukela also said at Monday’s meeting that he will consider a date for a public hearing regarding proposed improvements and a possible new activity center at Levy Park, in east Florence.

The city has $370,000 in Section 108 loan funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that it could use toward the building, which is projected to cost $400,000.

Council also discussed other park improvements — including basketball and tennis court repairs and a large picnic shelter — that would cost more than $300,000.

City officials, however, said they must verify whether the money has been earmarked for a new building or Levy Park itself.