Blight Busters is a citywide program aimed to identify and resolve minor blight issues affecting neighborhoods. The program is designed to enforce private property blight that is visible from the public right of way. Typical blight violations include; overgrown weeds, lawn parking, inoperative vehicles, graffiti and trash accumulations.
Blight Buster Volunteers are required to attend a training class prior to participating in the program. Blight Busters allow a citizen to identify blight in their neighborhood and report it directly to the assigned Blight Buster Program Inspector.
Upon receipt of a complaint the inspector would issue a notice based on the reported violation to the property owner with a date for compliance. The Blight Buster Volunteer would then be responsible for advising the inspector if the blight has been removed by the compliance date. If the blight has been resolved the case is closed, but if the property remains in non-compliance the code inspector would then follow up with additional enforcement actions until compliance is achieved.
Blight Busters is not meant to replace current General Code Enforcement Services that currently enforce all types of violations, including those involving property blight. Blight Busters is designed as an option for those citizens who wish to take a more active role in blight violation reporting and complaint follow-up.
Complaints submitted via BB differ from the traditional Code Enforcement complaint channels in some aspects; one being that you are assigned areas of responsibility in your neighborhood and a complaint log is required to be submitted to the inspector. The BB complaint process is enhanced since the sole focus of the code inspector assigned to the program is responding to and resolving property blight issues affecting the neighborhood.
A more robust version of the Blight Busters program has operated in the City previously when S.N.I was active (Strong Neighborhood Initiative). Blight Busters was successful in resolving blight and enhancing code & neighborhood relationships in the past and we anticipate that it will be successful again.