Councilwoman Susan A. Berland’s anti-blight legislation has been quite a success in the Town of Huntington.

The legislation, enacted July 12, 2011, created a list of blight conditions with specific point values attached to each. These conditions include, but are not limited to, past summonses on the property, illegal activity, fire hazards, boarded windows and entryways and graffiti.

Once a property earns a blight point value of 100 or more, a property owner may either rectify the various blights immediately or enter into a restoration agreement with the Town wherein they agree to complete specific repairs or improvements on a fixed timeline in order to be removed from the list. If the property owner remains noncompliant, they are required to pay a registration fee of $5,000 for a commercial property or $2,500 for a residential property. In addition, said property is placed on the Blighted Property Inventory List and blighted conditions are resolved by the Town and billed to the property owner.

On the agenda for the March 13, 2012 Town Board meeting, blighted properties are broken down into three categories:

1. Schedule A: Property owners that have failed to comply or abate violations. There are 13 properties on the list.
2. Schedule B: Property owners that have failed to comply or abate violations and the Town is referring said properties to an administrative hearing officer to consider demolishing the property. There are seven properties on the list.
3. Schedule C: Property owners that are currently in compliance and/or are party to a restoration agreement. There are seven properties on the list.

Six homeowners, with houses that were negatively affecting their neighborhoods, were each issued a notice of blight conditions from the Department of Public Safety and resolved those blighted conditions on their houses before receiving a second notice and/or entered into a restoration agreement with the Town of Huntington.

The houses which will appear under Schedule C of the Town Board Resolution due to restoration agreements and/or initial steps toward bringing the property in compliance are:

1. 10 Huntington Road, Huntington
   Cited for: excessive litter or debris; damaged, dead or fallen trees or limbs; storage of junk vehicles
2. 58 Southdown Road, Huntington
   Cited for: excessive litter or debris; overgrown grass; storage of junk vehicles; unsecured garbage pails
3. 37 Evergreen Avenue, Huntington Station
   Cited for: unsecured and/or in disrepair accessory structure; dead or fallen trees or limbs; excessive litter or debris; peeling or deteriorated paint

The houses which will appear under Schedule C of the Town Board Resolution due to their early and complete compliance are:

1. 46 Homeland Drive, Huntington
   Cited for: excessive litter or debris; dead or fallen trees or limbs; unsecured or unsightly tarps on roof; overgrown grass; broken, unsecured and/or in disrepair accessory structure
2. 1003 Baldwin Path, Dix Hills
   Cited for: peeling or deteriorated paint; excessive litter or debris; dead or fallen trees or limbs; overgrown grass; broken, unsecured, and/or in disrepair accessory structure
3. 11 Oak Road, Huntington
   Cited for: broken, unsecured and/or in disrepair windows; overgrown grass; excessive litter or debris; broken, unsecured and/or in disrepair shingles; storage of junk vehicles

“This legislation has been instrumental in protecting our quality of life and keeping property owners accountable for their code violations,” commented Councilwoman Berland. “Blighted areas draw crime and negatively affect the surrounding properties. I am pleased that this legislation has had a high level of success already since its implementation, by requiring property owners to clean-up their properties. It is a positive sign for all of us when property owners resolve their blight conditions promptly and without the need for further Town intervention.”