TEMECULA: Temecula takes aim at foreclosures

Councilwoman proposes lawn, property upkeep to maintain neighborhood values

By NICOLE SACK - Staff Writer | Monday, April 28, 2008 1:56 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- The use of the "F" word is becoming more prevalent at City Hall.

Foreclosures.

But instead of talking about the growing number of brown lawns and empty houses, the Temecula City Council and city administrators are crafting an ordinance to help neighborhoods cope with properties that have been abandoned by their owners.

"Preserving the quality and the safety of the neighborhood is the only reason we would get involved with something like this," said Temecula City Councilwoman Maryann Edwards. "A lot of people don't know what to do ---- just like cities don't know what to do, where to turn, who to call when these homes are abandoned."

Temecula's proposal comes on the heels of Murrieta enacting a similar ordinance early this year and Lake Elsinore's introduction of such an ordinance last month.

Edwards said the city has been working for months to find a way to keep properties secure and keep up the curb appeal of a home, even when no one lives there.

She said making efforts to guarantee that maintenance continues on empty houses is not meant to be a service to the people who left their homes, or the lenders that own them, but rather to the community members who remain and would otherwise have to live with an eyesore and potentially reduced property values.

Planning Director Debbie Ubnoske said the ordinance will be complaint-driven. A complaint will trigger code enforcement officials to go out and inspect a property and then begin the process of finding out who owns it.

Once that is determined, the owner of the house, which with a foreclosure is usually the lender, would be required to hire a property management company that will have to register with the city.

"This has been a really, really difficult issue," she said.

Mark Harold, director of building and safety, said a workshop to discuss the ordinance is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 43200 Business Park Drive.

"We want to get homeowner association members (and) property managers to discuss the goals of what we are trying to achieve as well as open the lines of communication so we can address frustrations, fears, etc.," Harold said. "We really want to minimize this very unfortunate position that many cities are facing."

The city has authority to deal with issues such as green pools, gates that are open or ajar and broken windows. Edwards said the proposed ordinance would attempt to control "attractive nuisances," properties that draw vandals, squatters, adventurous children and, potentially, gangs.

The proposed ordinance will take enforcement a step further to address the brown lawns of homes where the utilities have been shut off. The specific details will be hashed out at Tuesday's workshop.

"We have foreclosures, just like everyone else," Edwards said. "It's horrible, and en masse, it causes blight. Cities sometimes pass these foreclosure ordinances as a feel-good action, but our goal is to really make the difference."

The number of foreclosures in Southwest County is substantial.

As of mid-April, lenders owned 449 foreclosed homes in Temecula and surrounding areas that share its three ZIP codes, and an additional 1,000 homes were in earlier stages of the foreclosure process, according to Foreclosureradar.com, a subscriber service that tracks foreclosures statewide.

Lake Elsinore, a smaller city, had 423 lender-owned properties and nearly 1,000 others in foreclosure. Murrieta and areas just to the east and west of that city had 691 foreclosed homes and an additional 1,400 on the way, according to the service.

"Temecula usually leads the pack on these things, but on this one we seem to be trailing. With all the foreclosures all around, you wouldn't think it would be so different down here," said Planning Commission Chairman John Telesio of the timing of Temecula's proposal.

Telesio said as he has reviewed the policies of other cities, such as Murrieta, and he said enforcement should be clearly defined in whatever proposal is put forward by Temecula.

The Lake Elsinore City Council voted unanimously on March 25 to adopt a draft version of an ordinance that, when eventually approved, will require owners of foreclosed properties to register with the city and maintain the properties to neighborhood standards.

The owners, generally banks or lending companies, who fail to maintain the properties will face fines that will be recouped through a lien process, under Lake Elsinore's ordinance.

In February, Murrieta passed a similar, but more detailed, abandoned property registration and maintenance ordinance that lists various fines the owner of a property must pay for certain violations.

The Murrieta ordinance stipulates that as a property goes into foreclosure and becomes the possession of a lender, that lender would have to register the property with the city and pay a fee of $70 per year. The lenders would then face fines on an increasing scale, from $100 to $100,000, if their properties slip below acceptable standards.

Contact staff writer Nicole Sack at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, email addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.