Deputy Development Director, Kasie Foulk, updates the housing committee on a property on Front Street. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

A property on Front Street that has been a neighborhood eyesore is going to be cleaned up.

The property has been noted by City Council members to have had issues for a long time, and Deputy Development Director Kasie Foulk updated the council’s Housing Committee recently as to where that property was at. Councilman Doug Scotchmer, D-Ward 4, asked Foulk about the property, saying he had heard that the city had gotten a court order with permission to clean it up. He said he had been asked if the city was going to have to pay to remove all of the stuff from the property, which sits at the end of Front Street in the 100 block.

“Our first quote came back today at $1,300,” Foulk said. “A part of that is because there’s so much garbage and the sheds are all full of garbage and food waste, but there’s also large equipment and machines that need to be moved. So, then you’re looking at the cost of a flatbed and anything you need to move the large equipment.”

The property will be able to be counted into the Department of Development’s inventory as an abandoned property, Foulk said, and they will be able to recoup some of the costs through things like the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency auction. Right away though, the cost burden is on the city and there is not a way to go back against the owner. Foulk said they could lean the property, but it is one of those situations that if the owner had had the money to clean it up they would have. Foulk said it is not that the DOD does not want to lean it, but if they do there is then the question of it they will see the money from that.

Council and committee members discussed how far the property goes, and that the owner owns several parcels in the city. Some things have been moved, but Foulk said if the stuff goes onto another parcel, even if it is owned by the same person, they then have to start over and begin the case again. It was also noted that some stuff has been cleaned up, and the shed is gone. There is a call between the owner and DOD every day for an update, Foulk said, adding that the owner is working on cleaning some of the stuff up and that the pressure is being put on them to continue that.

“It’s been a long time issue,” Foulk said. “We were in court a while ago and there was an issue as our code at the time stated that your accessory structure had to be so many feet from your primary structure, but it didn’t specify that there couldn’t be an accessory structure just on its own. So, we did do a clarification in that code, but we had cited that section and the judge said ‘well, it depends on how you interpret it.'”

Foulk said while that was fixed in the code the sheds on the property were still unpermitted, so she was glad that the one shed is gone. Scotchmer added that some of the stuff on the property was so close to the street that it could be thought to be on the city easements.

Foulk said a lot of these issues get tricky because of it being private property and the legal implications behind cleaning up stuff, as it could also be seen as stealing it, and due process. Foulk added that the department has been dealing with this property for a long time.

“I don’t think a lot of people understand just how long it does take to resolve some of these issues,” Councilman Daniel Gonzalez, D-At Large, said.