Parkland has joined a growing list of cities that have put laws into place to decrease the effects of foreclosed or abandoned homes on the neighborhood.

The move comes in the wake of an increase in the number of foreclosures in the city over the last year. An ordinance that city officials discussed recently focuses on registration of abandoned homes. This places the burden of maintaining the property on the mortgagee.
The city will be able to impose fines if the mortgagee fails to keep the homes in proper shape.

The city should step in only if there were life, health, and safety issues, Mayor Udine said. “I like the registration provision but what I am not ok with is mowing the lawn. It will never end and we won’t have the dollars to do it. I wouldn’t want to live next to a house with a green pool, but if we intervene once, there would be demands to do others. We will need to go in once in a while, but this is a slippery slope.”

The main thrust of the Ordinance is to have abandoned properties registered, City Attorney Andrew Maurodis said. “There is nothing in the ordinance that obligates us to go in and do a thing. This is not aimed at making us step in and do the work. This is just to ensure that the mortgagee takes care of the property when foreclosure proceedings happen.”

Coral Springs, which has to deal with the problem on a much larger scale, passed a law a few months ago.