The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday heard about a proposed ordinance that would give city officials the power to seek foreclosure on nuisance properties in certain cases, with the goal of revitalizing the city’s neighborhoods.
“This is a judicial process that targets the property and not the person,” Katrina Thomas, director of the city’s Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, told councilors attending a Committee of the Whole meeting.
Birmingham officials can issue liens on nuisance properties to help offset the costs of demolishing or abating the issues with the structure. But Thomas said that the current system doesn’t give the city much power to enforce the liens, so the expenses are often unrecoverable…