Council committee OKs new weapons to fight blight | Politics | Macon.com

Macon would use all its legal options — voluntary sale or donation, forced sale through eminent domain or one kind of foreclosure — to get hold of abandoned or “blighted” property and turn it over to redevelopers, under a resolution proposed Tuesday.

The measure, sponsored by City Council President James Timley, came up for debate in the Public Properties Committee on Tuesday and passed in a 4-0 vote, with Councilwoman Elaine Lucas arriving just afterward.

Timley wasn’t present at the time, so Councilman Tom Ellington spoke on the issue. While the city has worked to make a dent in the problem by demolishing rundown, empty houses, that only affects part of the problem, he said. The idea now is to get the property in the hands of the city or the Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority, which can then sell it to a developer “where there is an actual, reasonable redevelopment plan,” Ellington said.

The resolution says the city should amend its policies to make greater use of all avenues allowed by state law and establish a public database of blighted or abandoned properties to attract developers with ideas.

via Council committee OKs new weapons to fight blight | Politics | Macon.com.