Property owners with vacant storefronts or lots in Long Beach may soon be faced with stricter code enforcement. The City Council is looking for ways to hold absentee landlords accountable for properties that have become a nuisance while vacant.
Council members this week asked city staff to prepare an ordinance that would amend the municipal code with enhancements to assure property owners comply with code enforcement citations and that vacant lots and empty storefronts are kept secure until they are developed or rented.
“What I have heard time and time again is the serious impacts that nuisance properties, and vacant lots and storefronts, have on the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” Councilmember Mary Zendejas said, who brought forth this item, along with council members Megan Kerr and Al Austin.
“Citywide we have a number of properties that neighbors fear are a nuisance, creating blight and in curtain instances resulting in serious harm like preventable fires,” Zendejas said.
It is evident that the city’s code enforcement ordinance needs to be updated, she added, and that loopholes need to be closed.
“We must find a balance that provides both incentives for the owners and prohibits measures that prevent nuisances,” Zendejas said during the council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Long Beach’s code enforcement, within the Community Development Department, assures that neighborhood quality of life is maintained through proper maintenance of private property and the timely resolution of any public nuisance or unauthorized construction.
However, Long Beach still faces many enforcement and quality of life challenges in different neighborhoods with more than 280 vacant lots in the city and a larger number of vacant storefronts and buildings, according to the staff report.
“The city’s existing tools to address these challenges are insufficient and in recent years, vacant lots and structures have become the source of nuisance and criminal activity,” the staff report says, “as well as the source of dozens of fires resulting in a substantial impact on Fire Department resources.”
Long Beach has looked at holding property owners accountable for vacant storefronts and lots before. In 2022, the City Council reviewed the feasibility of a vacant commercial property fee or tax program. The city has also explored incentives, zoning changes, adaptive reuse, homeless outreach, taxes, fees and other measures to address commercial vacancies in downtown Long Beach.
In December 2023, the Community Development Department concluded a review of its code enforcement ordinance and procedures. The department also reviewed the vacant buildings program operated in Seattle, and solicited input from members of the code enforcement staff and the Long Beach Fire Department, according to the staff report.
To enhance the code enforcement approach, there are several mechanisms the city can take, according to staff.
Some of those approaches include:
–Updating the code enforcement ordinance to record violations against title and work with lenders and other intermediaries to bring properties into compliance;
–Reviewing feeds associated with the vacant lot and vacant building monitoring program to assure full cost recovery, adequate staffing and supervision and potentially a tiered increase of fines over time; and
–Expanding the city’s ability to issue criminal citations and secure civil remedies.
“We really appreciate good property owners who work with us, who respond when we call, and ask them to do something,” Kerr said. “Many of them do, that is the case for sure. But we do know that the current system doesn’t work for everybody and is not the perfect model.”
Property owners should be able to maintain their property so it doesn’t contribute to blight or safety concerns, she added.
While holding property owners accountable and improving code enforcement is important, Councilmember Suely Saro said that it should not take a punitive approach either. She said that the city also needs to figure out how to work with those property owners not able to fill lots and storefronts.
“While we will have enforcement,” Saro said, “we do need to fill these vacant properties at some point and we need to support the micro-business owners beginning there.”
During public comment, the majority of residents were in favor of a stronger ordinance for code enforcement on vacant properties in the city. Many shared their difficult experiences of dealing with abandoned buildings and empty lots in their neighborhoods accumulating trash, attracting vermin and other safety concerns.
“We love what you’re doing here and we want to actively support you,” Leanna Noble, a Long Beach resident, said. “We just ask that you and the staff consider adding to your goals the language that talks about neighborhood safety and health because blight does not begin to cover what the crisis is here. We would also like for you to consider adding equity as a goal.”
There were also representatives of property owners, saying they would like to collaborate with the city on finding ways to address these vacant properties.
“Obviously our industry has suffered from significant vacancy challenges and we just want to ensure that the vacancy enforcement measures don’t ensnare good faith property owners,” said Blake Perez, director of government and public affairs for the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles.
“We want to make sure that the language written is done in such a way that it balances the need for community enforcement tools,” he said, “but also can help and support property owners who are trying to fill spaces.”
Perez said that oftentimes vacancies are caused by economic conditions. Local ordinances or code requirements also may inhibit the type of business that wants to move into the property.
“We ask to continue to be able to work together to develop a policy that threads that needle and continues incentivizing and filling in these spaces and gives time for those incentives to take place,” he said, “and give the tools for the community to address some of these more challenging areas.”
The City Council voted 7-0, with council members Roberto Uranga and Joni Ricks-Oddie absent, approving that city staffers prepare an ordinance to create stronger code enforcement on vacant storefronts and lots in Long Beach.
City staffers were also asked to report to the Economic Development and Opportunity Committee regarding the effectiveness of programs and controls to assure vacant properties are addressed to prevent blight.
“This is a citywide issue that we’re facing and each and every one of us has experienced this in our districts,” Zendejas said.
“One of the things that I would encourage city staff to do as we explore this, is to be able to find out what the reasons are behind what is causing some of our absentee landlords to be absent,” she said. “What can we do as a city to make sure that they are collaborative. We need to be collaborative and bring everyone to the table and make sure we as a city are also providing resources that help everybody but also that we’re listening to our residents.”