Charleston’s mayor and Board of Aldermen are prepared to lower the boom over neglected property in the city.
“We are moving forward with a very aggressive force when it comes to code enforcement,” Mayor Sedrick Smith noted this week.
Residents are asked to “remove blighted properties in an effort to improve the health and safety” of the city and to eliminate “overgrown properties, accumulation of junk, debris, abandoned vehicles and dilapidated and burned structures.”
While not expressly threatening to embrace legal remedies, a section of state law, 21-19-11, details the process whereby private property may be declared “a menace to the public health, safety and welfare of the community,” and prescribes certain steps governments can take to address the issue, including cleaning the property in question and assessing the cost to the property owner, along with a penalty of up to $1,000.
