3/14/2006
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Legislature approves once-doomed abandoned houses bill
Mayor credits community leaders for bill’s revival
INDIANAPOLIS - Both houses of the state legislature today approved legislation that would give cities statewide better tools to redevelop abandoned properties and hold negligent property owners more accountable.
The abandoned houses bill, Senate Bill 341, was dealt a serious blow two weeks ago in a House committee after it was removed from the agenda despite having widespread, bipartisan support throughout the legislative session.
Yesterday, a legislative conference committee gave the bill new life by inserting the SB 341 language into an existing local government bill, HB 1102. That bill passed both chambers overwhelmingly this afternoon.
"Abandoned houses are a scourge on our local neighborhoods, and this bill gives cities and counties across the state better tools to improve our communities by more quickly moving these properties from abandonment to redevelopment," Peterson said. "I am pleased the legislature took action to help strengthen our neighborhoods by passing this important piece of legislation."
The Mayor last week called on the legislature to act on SB 341 in his State of the City address.
He credited local neighborhood leaders for the bill’s revival. "Without them, this widely supported bill would still be lying dead on the floor of a House committee," Peterson said.
After the House committee failed to act in February, activists in the Arsenal Heights neighborhood enlisted the support of residents throughout the city and began an e-mail campaign calling on legislators to bring back the abandoned houses provisions of SB 341. The near-Eastside community also held a rally at an abandoned house to highlight the types of properties that could be impacted by the bill.
The state law changes related to abandoned properties that are now a part of HB 1102 essentially do three things:
1) Add teeth to a city’s ability to go after negligent property owners and prevent these bad actors from acquiring even more property;
2) Provide municipalities with more options in partnering with developers to revitalize troubled properties; and
3) Speed up the timeframe that sites may languish in abandonment before they can be put back into positive reuse.
These amendments spawn from ideas crafted by the Abandoned Houses Work Group, an advisory body consisting of community leaders appointed by the Mayor to develop strategies to carry out the city’s abandoned houses initiative. The abandoned properties bill was also drafted with the guidance and expertise of representatives from the National Vacant Properties campaign, which awarded the City of Indianapolis with a grant providing expert assistance in tackling blighted areas through enacting changes to state and local law.
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