Richwood council is at a standstill with what to do about zoning issues.
At the regular meeting on Monday, council members discussed the difficulty of foreclosing on houses in the village, as well as enforcing other zoning violations.
Mayor Scott Jerew said his issues with getting houses foreclosed have stemmed all the way back to when he was a council member.
“I think there was seven; they’ve all been certified delinquent before 2000. So they’ve been certified delinquent for over seven or eight or nine years, so why does it take 20 years to foreclose on houses,” Jerew said. “I’ve got the paper trail, and I can give it to all of you where I started back when I was a council member, the same houses are still delinquent.”
Village Solicitor Julie Spain said that they continue to follow up but it’s not something that can be done on their side of things.
Jerew said that there are about 20 houses in Richwood that could be foreclosed on, and he’s had people come to him and want to buy and flip houses.
“I’m fighting it everyday and I don’t know what to do,” Jerew said.
Council also voiced frustrations about unsightly and unsanitary garbage around properties in Richwood.
Spain said in order for garbage to be removed, it has to constitute a detriment to the public health.
“If you’ve got this stuff, it’s there, it hasn’t been removed, it’s a detriment to the public health, then, (it will) cause a written notice to be served,” Spain said. “They have to remove it or collect it within 15 days of receiving the notice.”
Spain said if the owner or tenant doesn’t remove it within that time, then it can be officially removed and charges can be assessed.
The difficult part for Richwood regarding zoning is that any enforcement has to be done under police or public safety personnel, Spain said.
“I think it’s a different level of resources,” she said, when asked how the city of Marysville handles zoning. “It just takes a lot of work and they’ve got a bigger team over there.”