Taking action on blighted properties
“People shouldn’t have to live in or near “unsightly or unsafe properties,” said state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, sponsor of a bill that would give municipalities the authority to fine owners of “blighted” properties up to $250 a day.
“The problem is not rampant,” said Fuller Clark, a Portsmouth Democrat. “But it exists.”
It exists not just in rural New Hampshire, but also in gentrified Portsmouth, where the city has a running list of problem properties and officials are grappling with how to respond to them. As currently proposed, Senate Bill 175 “authorizes municipalities to enact ordinances to address blighted property.”
Fuller Clark said many people believe cities and towns “can do what they want” with neglected real estate but, she advised, they can’t. “
Dinan, Elizabeth. Seacoast Online 1 February 2015.