Committee meeting Tuesday to discuss vacant property ordinance

Havre City Council and community members will discuss the possible adoption of an ordinance at a meeting of the council’s Ordinance Committee Tuesday.

The meeting will be 6:30 p.m Tuesday in City Hall and is open to the public.

Council President Andrew Brekke said the meeting is preliminary and will be a chance to explain the proposal and for the public to ask questions and give their input.

“The ordinance committee starts with a proposal and then we work on if we want to move forward we will do that,” Brekke said. “It’s a pretty in-depth thing.”

Samantha Clawson, wife of council member Caleb Hutchins, suggested at the council’s April 17 meeting that the city consider adoption of a vacant property registration ordinance, or VPRO.

A VPRO would require landowners pay a fee to register vacant properties and maintain the property to certain standards. The VPRO would consist of a clear definition of what properties and parties must register and a public registry, likely listed online.

Fines would be used to fund the registry or provide incentives to either maintain or sell deteriorating properties.

The city-county government of Butte-Silverbow County adopted a VPRO last year.

Clawson has said she became interested in the ordinance because of reports of a company, Sunrise Financial, buying tax liens on property in Havre but not doing much to maintain or use the property after taking possession of them and refusing to accept reasonable offers for the properties.

If the committee does decide to move forward, the move likely will not be a fast one, Brekke said, adding that it took Butte-Silverbow years to adopt their ordinance. He said it takes two or three meetings for the committee to advance a standard ordinance change to the council for discussion and a vote.