The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance that will give city officials the power to seek foreclosures on nuisance properties in certain cases.

“For those who may not know, I used to work as a closing attorney and saw these abandoned properties transforming overnight into five-ton anchors for families,” Councilor Crystal Smitherman was quoted as saying in a release. “It’s a compounding issue as they try to navigate their grief and sort out family affairs following a death of a loved one. No one wants to displace people who are behind on payments, nor is this about criminalizing poor communities. This ordinance is crafted in a way that the judicial process targets the property, not the person.”

City leaders can issue liens on nuisance properties to help offset the costs of demolishing or abating issues with the structure, but those liens often go unpaid.  The measure approved Tuesday gives Birmingham officials the ability to petition a judge to foreclose on the property to recover any nuisance abatement costs.

City leaders say this new enforcement tool will have a large impact in revitalizing neighborhoods and combating the prevalence of overgrown and nuisance properties.

The new ordinance was possible because of a state law passed last year.

City officials stress that the ordinance applies only to non-owner-occupied dwellings, meaning no resident will lose their home through a foreclosure brought on by this measure.

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

• The property has liens that exceed $1,500.
• The property has had three nuisance abatements within 36 months.
• It is needed for public use.
• It is not tax delinquent.

After an earlier discussion, the council passed the measure unanimously on Tuesday.

ShotSpotter Contract Continued

In other business, the council approved a three-year, $3 million agreement to renew the city’s contract with the provider of ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology.

The service, provided by SoundThinking Inc., uses a network of sensors to detect and triangulate the location of gunfire in the city. In Birmingham, the data is fed into the Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center.

Police Chief Michael Pickett told the council that the department has a 20-square-mile coverage area with the technology. He estimated that between 30% to 40% of the time, officers respond to gunfire detected by ShotSpotter without someone calling 911 to report it first.

According to the chief, the $3 million agreement represents a 5% increase from the previous contract.

“I have seen ShotSpotter work firsthand, on the ground level,” Councilor Hunter Williams told reporters following Tuesday’s meeting. “I’ve been at the police precinct that covers my district and seen shots be detected on their computer. It shows exactly where the shots came from, what caliber of gun it was, the number of shots and the likelihood of this being an accurate report. We have an issue in this city where people, unfortunately, have become somewhat used to gunfire and do not bother reporting it in many cases. This technology allows law enforcement to respond to any instance of gunfire and, at the very least, collect shell casings that could help solve additional crimes.”

The council on Tuesday also approved an ordinance that will close 20th Avenue South, approximately 190 feet from its intersection with Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard South, near Vulcan.

The decision comes after a public hearing in which nearby residents voiced their frustration with the traffic that will accompany a car wash planned at the intersection.