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Date: 4/11/2023
EASTHAMPTON — At its April 5 meeting, the Easthampton City Council approved a vacant storefront ordinance that will create a registry of unused buildings and hold landlords accountable for leaving buildings vacant.
“This is an ordinance that could potentially do some really good things in this city,” said Councilor Brad Riley, who is also clerk of the Ordinance Committee.
Beginning July 1, owners of vacant buildings will be required to register those buildings in a city registry of vacant buildings. The hope is to encourage vacant building owners to be more proactive about getting tenants in those buildings while also providing a resource for people who may be looking to lease a storefront.
“We’re pretty confident about what we have,” explained Councilor Thomas Peake, another member of the Ordinance Committee. “What is going on in these buildings has an effect on other buildings.”
Peake noted that Easthampton is not the first community to attempt such a registry.
Gwynne Morrissey, chair of the Easthampton Development and Industrial Commission, praised the proposal and said the commission is “excited about possible new developments.”
While there will be a cost to register the vacant buildings, and increased fees for condemned buildings because of safety issues, the goal of the registry is not to make money. Waivers will be available for owners who are facing financial hardship, who are actively improving the building while it’s vacant, and those who display public art in the empty building.
“The idea is to get businesses not money,” said Homar Gomez, president of the City Council.
Community Relations Committee
After significant discussion and much public input, the council voted to continue the topic of lowering the number of Community Relations Committee members from 11 to seven.
Councilors expressed concern that they felt like they didn’t have enough information to make a decision after multiple community members spoke and asked the council not to make such a drastic cut to the number of members.
“Finding people who want to do this hard, unpaid work is hard,” said Peake. “We have to ask what are the issues that are holding [the committee] back.”
The committee, which began several years ago, has faced difficulty recently reaching a quorum and being able to have meetings. Merriam Ansara was appointed to the committee at the meeting, but there were only five members before that. A quorum for an 11-person committee would be six people.
The council will continue the discussion at its Apr. 17 meeting and plans to take a vote then. Councilor Daniel Rist noted that he hopes the community relations committee can meet with the appointments committee to discuss the difficulties facing it.
Other actions
The council delayed a vote on creating the Biodiversity Environment and Ecological Sustainability Committee because Councilor Owen Zaret, who was instrumental in its creation, could not be at the meeting. Its public hearing was moved to the April 17 meeting.
The council approved three supplemental appropriations worth just over $8,000. Two will pay old bills that were received after the close of fiscal year 2022: $4,624 for benefit coordinator services and $704.81 to Verizon. The council approved $7,500 to upgrade the phone system at the public safety complex.