Shreveport’s vacant downtown buildings won’t be targeted by a recent ordinance unless they’re also blighted and unsecured after revisions made to it this week.
Revisions to the ordinance Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux intended to spur owners of vacant downtown buildings to get them back into commerce passed the city council this week. The changes narrow the scope of the original ordinance so it no longer targets merely empty buildings but rather those that are blighted.
Last summer, Arceneaux proposed changing city rules to require owners of vacant buildings downtown register their properties with the city and maintain them in accordance with new standards. Arceneaux pitched the ideas as a pilot program which eventually could be expanded citywide in an effort to combat blight…