Henry S. Hofschneider
THE Zoning Office will soon implement Saipan Local Law 20-25 or the Nuisance Abatement and Blighted Property Maintenance Act of 2018.
In an interview on Friday, Zoning Administrator Therese Ogumoro said they are finalizing an inventory of blighted properties as defined by S.L.L. 20-25. These include a building or a tract of land, public or private, improved or unimproved, that “endangers life or property by fire or other causes or that which substantially impairs or arrests property values or the sound growth of the Commonwealth, and is a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare in its present condition and use.”
Ogumoro said the Zoning Office will send out courtesy notices to the owners of the blighted properties on their list. She said they will also launch a campaign to raise awareness of the negative impact of blighted properties on the quality of life for the island’s communities.
Zoning Board Chairman Henry S. Hofschneider said the enforcement of S.L.L. 20-25 has been delayed because the implementing regulations, although published for 30 days, were never adopted.
“You don’t see the adopted regulations on the Law Revision Commission website under the administrative code because they were never adopted,” he said.
Ogumoro said the assistant attorneys general assigned to the Zoning Office are reviewing the proposed regulations. Afterward, these will be published again for 30 days in the Commonwealth Register before they are adopted. “We encourage the public to comment on the proposed regulations during the 30-day publication period,” Hofschneider said.
“In the meantime, the Zoning Office will be issuing advance notices to the property owners to encourage them to improve their property,” Hofschneider said. “If the property owners are dissatisfied with the administrator’s findings in the notice of violation, they will have an opportunity to appeal to the [Zoning] Board.”
Ogumoro said the property owners must either improve the property or demolish it. If neither of these actions is taken within a certain timeframe, the CNMI government, in compliance with applicable procedures, may record a lien against the property.
S.L.L. 20-25 requires the owner of blighted property to repay the total expense, including administrative costs and interest, incurred by the government, in causing a public nuisance to be terminated.
“Upon recordation of the lien with the Commonwealth Recorder, the government shall have a lien upon the property on which the nuisance was abated, as well as upon any other property of the owner, for the total expense or any penalties imposed, after a final determination on liability and penalties in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act,” S.L.L. 20-25 stated.
“The lien shall be effective and final against the real property upon which a nuisance has been abated and any other property of the owner from the time of entry by the Commonwealth Recorder’s Office and shall take priority as of the time of entry therein. Any lien granted pursuant to this Chapter shall be enforceable and continue in full force for 20 years after the date the lien is recorded, or discharged by payment, or stayed or terminated by the court.”
