Murfreesboro businesses tackle spot blight problem

Some businessmen active in organizations trying to improve Murfreesboro Pike say a proliferation of used car lots and a number of vacant properties, especially vacant gas stations, are making it difficult to attract new businesses to the area.

Close to 10 car lots, for example, pack the half-mile stretch of Murfreesboro Pike from Fairfield Avenue to Nance Lane. A few look polished; many are shabby.

But also along the short stretch sits Trevecca Nazarene University to one side and the headquarters of Purity Dairies on the other, where the Murfreesboro Road Business Association (MRBA) meets.

Empty gas stations, especially, have become a "sore spot," said Wendell Poole, MRBA treasurer and administrator of the Trevecca Towers Retirement Center adjacent to the university.

A time limit for cleaning or renovating property should be put on owners who vacate gas stations, Poole said.

A section of the Metro Code of Laws that permits blighted, deteriorated and vacant property to be seized by eminent domain will be a major topic at a forum for at-large Metro Council members Thursday.

Some members of the organizations hope this section -the spot blight ordinance - will alleviate some of the problems with unkempt property along Murfreesboro Pike.

But the law only deals with vacant property, not properties still occupied, like the used car lots.

The law, using authority granted by the state, says property that is vacant, blighted or deteriorated, and whose owner has been ordered to eliminate conditions "in violation of Metropolitan codes or ordinances" can be designated as "blighted or deteriorated."

If a property is certified, the Metro Council can institute eminent domain proceedings.

Metro Councilman at Large David Briley, who sponsored an amendment to the spot blight ordinance in 2000, said to his knowledge the law has never been used to take property by eminent domain.

He said that in 2000, it was hoped the ordinance would pressure landowners to keep their properties maintained.

The threat, apparently, has not worked and Briley now wants to use the law more aggressively.

Briley will meet Friday with the director of the Department of Codes Administration and the MDHA executive director to discuss how to better use the law.

Neighborhoods will have to take the initiative to identify what properties are causing quality of life problems and that could be considered for action under the law, he said.

He added that the city would have to compensate a landowner whose property is taken and that procuring this money could be difficult.

A property taken by eminent domain through the law would have to be a "serious and great" public menace - with squatters, drug dealers or with health problems being caused, for example.

As for vacant gas stations, it may be hard to sell them because of environmental regulations, Poole said.

Roger Walker, MRBA president, said many of the car lots are "fly-by-night" operations.

"A lot these places are extremely unsightly, and we've had a number of complaints from neighborhood groups, so we're looking at the more closely," said Bill Penn, property standards chief in the Codes Department.