The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday heard about a proposed ordinance that would give city officials the power to seek foreclosure on nuisance properties in certain cases, with the goal of revitalizing the city’s neighborhoods.

“This is a judicial process that targets the property and not the person,” Katrina Thomas, director of the city’s Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, told councilors attending a Committee of the Whole meeting.

Birmingham officials can issue liens on nuisance properties to help offset the costs of demolishing or abating the issues with the structure. But Thomas said that the current system doesn’t give the city much power to enforce the liens, so the expenses are often unrecoverable.

“We issue liens, but those liens often sit unpaid. They sit for years, and those properties continue to decay and then, meanwhile, neighbors that live next door to these unsafe structures and overgrown lots and repeat nuisance activities, they want answers,” she told the council.

A state law passed within the last year gives cities such as Birmingham more options in terms of enforcement. If the council were to pass the ordinance Thomas presented on Tuesday, city officials could petition judges to grant foreclosures on nuisance properties.

Thomas stressed that the properties would have to meet several criteria to qualify for this enforcement process — the chief one being that it can’t be an owner-occupied dwelling.

“It ensures that owner-occupied properties are exempt so that families will not lose their home through this process,” she said.

The city can foreclose if liens remain unpaid for more than six months. Other key triggers for foreclosure include if the property:

• Has liens that exceed $1,500.
• Has had three nuisance abatements within 36 months.
• Is needed for public use.
• Is not tax delinquent. Thomas said this would help the city avoid paying the extra costs of tax liens.

Thomas said that if the council approves the ordinance, the city would start with a pilot of 100 properties to test the process and scale appropriately. Public education and community engagement will be crucial, she said.

For their part, the council members expressed support for the ordinance, voting to move the measure forward for a full council vote.

“I think it’s wonderfully written and it sounds like you and the people in your department have really thought this through,” Councilor Hunter Williams said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the link to SB9 from the 2024 legislative session.