Abandoned properties fined; takeover studied

Las Vegas leaders slapped fines on three blighted properties this week and talked tough about seizing trashed properties for use as affordable housing -- but the rhetoric might have ventured beyond the limits of the law.

The City Council decided to make an example of the properties, two of which were described as abandoned and dilapidated, by imposing the maximum $500-a-day fine and making it retroactive to October, which is when they first got the city's attention.

Then Mayor Oscar Goodman speculated that if the fines went high enough, the city could take possession of the buildings -- all four-plex apartments -- and use them for low-cost housing.

"It seems to me that we could steal it," Goodman said.

"Those are hard to walk away with," replied City Attorney Brad Jerbic.

"If we lien it up enough, we can steal the home," Goodman continued. "I think we have to do that. These people don't want the home."

The three properties are four-plexes on Bellota Drive, which is at the back of a dense development of apartment buildings near Lake Mead and Jones boulevards.

The street has been hard hit. In all, four of the apartment buildings on the street have been boarded up.

Five are for sale, with one of those being advertised as a foreclosure.

One of the three properties fined by the council is also owned by a bank.

The Southern Nevada Health District and the Metropolitan Police Department have already targeted the area in an effort to improve living conditions and reduce crime.

The council deals with distressed and neglected properties at nearly every meeting. If a property owner doesn't clean up a property, the city hires a contractor to collect trash and board up windows and doors.

The cost is assessed as a lien on the property, which can't be sold until the lien is paid, and the council has the option of imposing fines.

But that process "doesn't solve the immediate problem of blight in the community," Goodman said when asked later about his contention that the city could burden the property to the point that it could be seized.

"I am absolutely in favor of that," Goodman said. "I'm not going to tolerate these blighted properties."

That holds true even if it means legal entanglements, he said.

"I don't care. The worst that happens is we're sued," Goodman said. "I made a good living for 35 years in court, so I've got no problem with that.

"If they want to sue us, we'll have a test case."

In a separate interview, though, Jerbic said that's probably not the route the city would take if it acquires the properties.

"We cannot acquire anybody's property for free," he said. "If we wanted to acquire the property, we would have to buy it."

There are a few avenues to accomplishing that. The city could buy them, although the municipal budget is already stretched tight.

A better source of funds could be the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, which captures revenue from new development downtown and must use some of that for affordable housing. The Las Vegas Housing Authority could get involved.

Las Vegas has the nation's highest foreclosure rate and often owners, facing the loss of a property, find it easier to walk away rather than take the time and expense to keep something they can't afford.

"We do have a lot of abandoned homes in this city right now," Jerbic said. "We have an equal need for affordable housing. I think the mayor is trying to bring those needs together."

Legal niceties aside, City Council members liked the idea of being more aggressive with blighted properties.

"I'd like to at least test it," Goodman said.

"So we stir it up a little," said Councilman Steve Ross. "Maybe that's what it takes."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@ reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.