FORT KENT, Maine — Town officials continued discussion of how to deal with vacant, blighted and potentially dangerous buildings in the community during a March 10 council meeting. And while no action was taken by the council, the planning board will continue looking into the process of imposing liens on these buildings.
Town Council began discussing the possibility of taxing the owners of vacant buildings earlier this year during a Jan. 14 meeting. During this meeting, Town Manager Suzie Paradis said she reached out to the city of Bangor to see what type of fee it uses to assess these properties. Paradis said Bangor handles this through its planning board and code enforcement office, and charges a fee that goes up each year after a building is vacant for a certain period of time.
Some buildings, such as those related to the military, are exempt from this.
On Monday, Code Enforcement Officer Cole Pelletier said that he and the town planning board discussed creating an ordinance that would force owners to clean up vacant buildings. He said the planning board is seeking direction from the town council about how to implement a lien if a vacant building is not taken down after a certain period of time.
He said the planning board suggested requiring a building owner to register the vacant property with the town, which would establish a paper trail. From here, a fee could be assessed after six months.
He said the planning board’s main question was how this process could end, as even if the town begins charging a fee every six months, some property owners may still refuse to pay it. At that point, he said the board considered whether or not the town could put a lien on the property and take ownership of it.
Paradis said the town may not be able to put a lien on the property unless taxes are owed, and Pelletier said he has been in contact with other experts to see what options the town would have in terms of imposing liens. He said the board is also considering acting on the state’s dangerous buildings statute. If a building is deemed dangerous, then it can be torn down or removed.
Pelletier said that, based on recent conversations with the city of Bangor, the city has registered 175 buildings that fit the criteria. But it has not as of Monday taken any further action regarding these buildings.
Robichaud and Paradis both suggested keeping an eye on how Bangor approaches the situation while Fort Kent creates its own policy.
Council Chairman Pelletier suggested pursuing options for applying a lien and eventually taking ownership of vacant or dangerous buildings.
Cole Pelletier said the town would have to pay for the building if this happens, which taxpayers in town would need to be willing to do.
“If we lien 10 buildings, and that’s enough to get people to start doing something, and we end up with one building, it might be a fair trade-off,” Corey Pelletier said.
Cole Pelletier said that, moving forward, the planning board will look more into the lien process and determine if this could be an option.
