When Baton Rouge inspectors determine a blighted property is unsafe, the city-parish government can ask the Metro Council to convene a hearing to hold the owners accountable and decide if the blighted homes or buildings should be demolished.
But such condemnation hearings rarely happen.
“In 10 years of witnessing Metro Council meetings, I have not witnessed one actual vote on a blighted property,” said Andrew Fitzgerald, senior vice president of strategy and research for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.
Now, three bills authored by the chamber to change that process are moving through the state Legislature.
Supporters say the measures would help reduce crime and boost economic development. The proposals would shift some decision-making power from the Metro Council to the Mayor’s Office and administrative courts.
Senate Bill 236, sponsored by Rick Edmonds, would let Baton Rouge use an existing administrative “blight court” instead of Metro Council hearings for such cases to streamline the handling of problem properties.
State law requires the Metro Council to vote on whether to condemn properties or give owners more time to make repairs. In practice, though, individual council members usually make those decisions, and the rest of the council defers to them. Formal votes are rare.
Over the past year, fewer than half of the 354 properties recommended for condemnation were approved, according to the city’s Department of Development.
Advocates of the legislation — which would provide an exception in state statute for Baton Rouge — argue the current process is broken because it is overly political. They say council members sometimes defer decisions for years, or delete properties from blight lists citing family disputes or due to pressure from developers.
The Metro Council can hear only 25 condemnation cases per meeting, and with about 800 properties waiting, it would take over a year and a half to clear the existing backlog, said Dario Scalco, director of public policy for the chamber. Each deferral adds to the problem, because the city has to pay for another inspection, all while other properties idle on the blight list.
“It's an avalanche that has not ended,” Scalco said.
District 5 Metro Council member Daryl Hurst says families often approach council members, asking for more time to deal with a blighted property they inherited.
"They say it's a situation where they are going through succession, and the succession is taking extremely long,” Hurst said.
Hurst said he is frustrated with the current condemnation process and noted the legislation could speed the process by taking "the friendships out of making our city beautiful.”
But he also expressed concern that it would give the Mayor’s Office too much control, allowing properties to be sent to blight court with little oversight.
“All we are doing is passing the baton from one seat to another,” he said. “And the results will be driven by who sits in that seat.”
Instead, Hurst favors increasing the number of cases the Metro Council can hear.
“We are shooting ourselves in the foot by trying to limit the number of condemnations that we have listed on the Metro Council agenda,” Hurst said. “We just need to work with the parish attorney to figure out the best way to get things moving forward.”
The chamber argues the blight court would offer stronger protections and due process for landowners than elected officials, noting people could appeal rulings to state court.
Two other measures — House Bills 162 and 247 — would help the city and its redevelopment agency, Build Baton Rouge, return land to productive use more quickly after its condemnation.
Oftentimes, after a building is condemned and demolished, the land is sold at a tax sale. But buyers often face years of legal obstacles to obtain "clear title" — or full legal ownership — especially when properties have multiple heirs, liens or mortgages. Without clear title, developers struggle to secure financing or insurance, leaving most properties idle for at least a decade before redevelopment is even possible.
Hurst said title clearing can become "a horror story."
"People can buy it from the city, but there is nothing they can do with it because those properties have 30 names on them and none of them can be found,” he said.
The city-parish estimates about 6,000 properties are currently in adjudication, meaning they are tied up in a legal process as a result of unpaid taxes.
The new legislation would let the city expropriate — or legally seize — blighted or abandoned land for immediate redevelopment.
“If the city expropriates it legally, they can sell it to a developer with clear title or develop it themselves,” Fitzgerald said.
Supporters of that idea say it mirrors procedures employed by the state highway department and municipalities such as New Orleans, which Scalco says used expropriation to handle more than 10,000 properties in the four years after Hurricane Katrina.
“This was a big part of how they came back,” Fitzgerald added.
Critics worry the legislation could erode property owner rights.
But Scalco says owners would still be notified and compensated based on an appraisal and could appeal the expropriation in court. The law also makes clear that only abandoned or blighted properties are eligible, and that land must be used for commercial purposes with priority given to affordable housing.
The chamber points to from LSU and the District Attorney’s Office that shows neighborhoods with a lot of blighted properties experience more crime.
“When you look within these disinvested neighborhoods, it’s the blighted properties specifically that are linked to homicides and violent crime,” said Jake Polansky, the chamber’s director of strategy and research.Â
Mason Batts, executive director of Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ office, describes blight as a top issue, though he said the administration is still evaluating the potential effects of the bills.
“You can do a lot of things, but if you don’t clean up the city, you're not going to have a lasting change,” he said. “Anything that can help us remove blight at a faster pace, I think it's better.”
