Canfield tightens vacant-property laws

November 22, 2018 at 12:05a.m.

By JUSTIN DENNIS

CANFIELD

Canfield City Council approved several property ordinances Wednesday, including a ban on “businesses” that spring up on vacant or in-use properties.

City Manager Wade Calhoun said city officials have encountered issues with people residing on vacant properties or hawking wares on them and realized city code couldn’t deal with it.

“We realized there wasn’t a whole lot we could do on specifically vacant lots,” he said. “We had very little in our ordinances that could address vacant lots.”

The first ordinance limits business properties to a single commercial usage and bars businesses from conducting transactions on vacant lots.

“What we’re trying to avoid here is the people that show up selling carpets at a gas station, or coats ... where all of a sudden, there’s another business on the lot,” city Attorney Mark Fortunato said.

Resident Katherine Young warned the ordinance might also prohibit fruit or vegetable stands or a traveling mammogram center that stops by the city’s pharmacy. Fortunato said businesses may apply for a variance.

Another ordinance prohibits people from residing on a vacant lot without a permanent structure with utility connections. Officials clarified the ordinance doesn’t require active utility service in the structure, just connections.

“Right now, I don’t think there’s one house in the city without utility connections,” Fortunato said. “This is so people can’t just pitch a tent on a vacant lot.”

A third prohibits parked cars on vacant residential lots in the city. Violators’ vehicles would be towed or impounded, with costs assessed to the owner, according to the ordinance.

In other business, officials said city residents are able to collect debris and tree branches for city curbside pickup and disposal Monday morning, Calhoun said. Branches must be no more than 10 feet long and no more than 8 inches in diameter, he said. Tree stumps, roots and trunks will not be accepted.

Officials adjourned after entering a closed session on “economic development assistance.”