Oklahoma lawmakers are trying to figure out what to do about unoccupied and dilapidated private properties across the state. About a dozen representatives of small towns visited the State Capitol on Tuesday to make the case for a swift solution.
Republican Sens. Warren Hamilton from McCurtain and Bill Coleman from Ponca City hosted an interim study on vacant and abandoned properties in Oklahoma. It's a follow-up to Coleman's Senate Bill 400, which never made it to the chamber floor earlier this year.
The legislative efforts are in response to the problem of old, unoccupied structures across the state, many of which are owned by out-of-state investors, are unoccupied and severely neglected. The latest census data shows Oklahoma has a private property vacancy rate of 11.2 percent, or nearly 200,000 structures.
Mike Fina is the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Municipal League, an advocacy nonprofit advancing the interests of small towns. He said the issue is becoming too expensive for small towns to handle without help from the state.
"There's a huge cost to the municipality when we have to maintain those kinds of properties," Fina said. "And then when you're on your main street, it makes it that much worse."
He said some buildings have stayed vacant for over 30 years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to deal with, depending on the size.
The problem of dilapidated structures across Oklahoma includes commercial and residential buildings, owned by locals and people out of state alike. Commercial buildings tend to be located along historical main streets, while residential properties — the majority — can be found anywhere there are old houses within city limits.
And while the issue is pervasive mostly in rural parts of the state, committee members Sens. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, and Nikki Nice, D-Oklahoma City, ensured the conversation around a solution also included neglected urban areas in the major metros.
"I understand we're talking about rural communities today, but when we talk about all community…we can't even have a conversation without acknowledging that we have the same issues in urban areas," Goodwin said.
Fina and leaders present from Ponca City, Wilburton, Miami, and Blackwell agreed with the Democrats' point. Fina said, they're asking for lawmakers to empower them to take some kind of action on crumbling buildings, especially the commercial ones and those with what they called 'absentee owners,' regardless of the size or location of the city.
"Being the elected officials closest to the problem, putting the power in our hands makes a lot of sense because we're going to know what's right for our communities," he said.
He's talking about the money it can cost to demolish a dilapidated building once a city gets a lien on it, which ideally the owner of the property would pay, but is often just absorbed by taxpayers.
Mayor Bless Parker from Miami said some buildings can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 to demolish, depending on the size. And over the last decade, he said, his city has had to bring down around 50 such structures.
"The cost… most of it is at the landfill, and the tipping fees for hauling off that kind of structure…because it's construction material," Parker said. " Plus, we have to truck it. We don't have a landfill real close to us. So we have to truck it up into Missouri to Lamar. Missouri is the closest one to us."
For Mayor Loran Mayes in Wilburton, there is one extreme case: what her town has dubbed the "Hotel on the Hill."
"It is an eyesore," Mayes said, "But most importantly…It is a health and safety fear of mine and all of my police officers. We have lots of illegal activity that happens there. We are worried about a gigantic fire. It is located in one of the most low-income areas of our community, and it would devastate our neighbors."
But getting rid of it under the current state law is out of the question, she said.
"If I were to go into this hotel and take it down, the quotes I'm getting right now range from $235,000 to $325,000," she said. "My general fund right now is $375,000. I cannot put my community in a position to do that."
Among the proposed solutions were better defining what buildings can and should be considered dilapidated, implementing a robust and useful state landlord registry and starting a state-local revolving fund to help cover the crippling costs of demolition and reconstruction.
Sen. Coleman said in a short interview after the study that the political will exists to make some changes, and while his bill failed last year, the interim study continues the conversation.
As far as any cash injections, though, he said it remains to be seen what kind of money can be allocated to help.
