Tougher code enforcement coming

The East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is finalizing plans to present a new code enforcement effort—a series of proposed ordinances that will make it easier for the parish to clean up blighted properties. RDA president and CEO Walter Monsour hopes to present the package to Mayor Kip Holden and the Metro Council by the end of March. The initiative, based on code enforcement models that have proven to be successful in cities such as New Orleans and Baltimore, will include the creation of a code enforcement department that will be self-sustaining within three years and separate from the Department of Public Works, which currently handles code violations. Other proposed ordinances will stiffen fines for code violators and make it easier for the parish to foreclose on properties that are not brought up to code within one year of being cited. “We have found in looking at other models that when landowners understand they are going to be forced to bring their property up to code or lose it, they bring it up to code,” Monsour says. “If you don’t pay your code liens, your property can be foreclosed on.” The RDA has been working with DPW and law enforcement as it puts together the proposed ordinances. Monsour says the most significant change is a fundamental shift in the way the parish goes about cleaning up blight. “Right now it’s reactive: a complaint-based system,” he says. “This will be proactive; the department will initiate actions.” —Stephanie Riegel