Owners of vacant properties in Metuchen may soon have an extra push to secure tenants for them.
In seeking to address commercial buildings and homes left in disrepair, officials and some residents are looking at the possibility of creating a vacant property registration ordinance (VPRO).
“There are a lot of businesses and landlords doing the right thing, and there are certainly a number that are not,” Councilman Reed Leibfried said at the June 1 Borough Council meeting.
“In my humble opinion, some of these spaces are just unkempt, and it’s unacceptable. I’m a little frustrated at these spaces and some of these vacancies that, year after year, remain vacant.”
While Leibfried later said he remains uncertain about whether a VPRO would be the answer, he broached the topic to seek out a way to address such properties along Main Street and elsewhere.
A VPRO would require owners of vacant properties to register with the borough, paying a set fee for the first year and an increased fee for each subsequent year of vacancy.
In addition, it would help borough officials hold the property owners accountable if they do not keep their properties up to par, according to Borough Attorney Denis Murphy.
Mayor Thomas Vahalla later pointed out another benefit of such an ordinance.
“… If there is an issue with a property, whether it be fire or vandalism, the police and Fire Department could get in touch with [the owners],” he said. Murphy told the council he would draft a sample VPRO for review and discussion at the June 15 meeting.
He later said many towns have adopted VPROs and have had success with them. More than 100 municipalities throughout the state have some form of a VPRO, according to Safeguard Properties, a company focused on preserving vacant and foreclosed properties.
“It’s become extremely common in the last two years,” Murphy said.
Business Administrator Jennifer Maier said she has seen firsthand in other towns how helpful a VPRO can be, adding that it prompted property owners to secure tenants and take better care of their parcels.
Vahalla said the ordinance, if adopted, should also address bank-owned homes. He said complaints regularly come in from residents about homes on which the bank has foreclosed that are not kept up.
“… The thing that bothers the heck out of me is that it’s the same property every year,” the mayor said. “You drive by and you see the lawns 2 to 3 feet high and no one is maintaining it, yet you know that it’s a foreclosed property.”
Two residents have taken action to get a VPRO enacted in town. Samantha Stephens and Jason Delia put up a petition on Change.org to urge the council to adopt such an ordinance. As of June 15, it had garnered 73 signatures.
According to Delia, Stephens raised the idea before the council about a year ago.
“The more I found out about it, the more I thought people in town would support this,” he said, adding, “The ordinance itself is mostly pro-business.”
Delia added that a VPRO would help other businesses in town by getting tenants into long-vacant properties to help the business corridor thrive.
“At the same time, you want to try to find ways to not penalize these landlords and property owners who are acting in good faith,” he said.
Delia added that the state’s Main Street New Jersey program, of which the borough is a member, could be a major resource for revitalizing the downtown, and a VPRO could help with the efforts.
Stephens agreed.
“The idea is to take the idea of revitalizing Main Street from ideas and discussion on [the Take Back Metuchen’s Main Street] Facebook page … to action,” she said.
While acknowledging that they have already seen a number of responses from people who are against a VPRO, Stephens said the important thing is to spur discussion on the matter and to take positive action.
“I am not an expert,” she said. “[It’s] just something instead of just complaining about things, that we could actually do something that might make a difference.”
Leibfried echoed Delia’s sentiments about not wanting to penalize landlords that are doing the right thing. In fact, he said, he wants to act as an advocate for small businesses.
“I want to cut the red tape and make it as easy as possible for a small business to thrive,” he said, adding, “My primary focus is that we have landlords that have not kept the interests of the community that I love at the forefront. I firmly believe that we need to address absentee landlords and hold them to the highest level possible of accountability.”
While officials cited commercial properties left vacant for years and offending bankowned homes, they would not provide specifics on their locations.
One property that has remained vacant for years is a two-story office building on Middlesex Avenue. Initially approved by the borough for medical offices in 2000, the project remains incomplete, with no tenants occupying it. In 2014, the building owner applied for a zoning permit for the property after developing plans for a group of doctors to move their offices there, officials said. According to Vahalla, the plans never moved forward from there.
The state Permit Extension Act of 2008, in recognition of the economic downturn, extended permits for developers throughout the state. The act’s amendment last year extended some approvals through Dec. 31 and others through June 30, 2016.
The approval for the Middlesex Avenue building was extended twice.
Its owner could not be reached for this story.