Precinct 1 Rep. Vincent Aldan shares his views about the Blight Act during a public outreach conducted by the Zoning Office at San Vicente Elementary School on Jan. 30, 2025.
CITING the islands’ dismal economic conditions, Precinct 1 Rep. Vincent Aldan said the Commonwealth Zoning Office’s enforcement of the 2018 Nuisance Abatement & Blighted Property Maintenance Act should be “paused” by the governor.
The law requires property owners to maintain — and to be held accountable for — vacant and blighted properties because they pose a risk to the safety of the community.
Zoning Administrator Therese Ogumoro, in an interview on Monday, said putting the enforcement on hold “will not do any good for the island.”
The Zoning Office began implementing the regulations in November and has already cited 35 property owners.
During a public outreach presentation conducted by the Zoning Office at San Vicente Elementary School on Jan. 30, Aldan described the penalties as “unfair.”
He said the CNMI’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which is the federal rate, but “[Zoning] expects somebody that makes less than $80 a day … to pay a penalty of $1,000 per day if they cannot fix their place in 90 days,” Aldan said.
He said the Blight Act is not beneficial to anyone and that zoning regulations are redundant, as enforcement is already being carried out by the Saipan Mayor’s Office, the Department of Public Works, the Historic Preservation Office, and other agencies.
“I don’t think this law should be implemented right now because of the economic conundrum that we are in,” he said. Its enforcement should be paused “until such time as we are more economically viable to do so. But right now, it’s not going to work — you’re hurting the people you’re attempting to help,” Aldan told zoning officials.
“It’s not helping the community at large, it’s not helping the businesses, definitely not helping the government, and residents,” he added.
Aldan said the Zoning Board should also reassess the Blight Act regulations.
He reiterated that the penalties are unfair to businesses. “If anything, you’re going to cause them to close shop and shut their business down,” Aldan said.
Courtesy notices
For her part, Ogumoro said the Zoning Office has a process that they follow.
“We give courtesy notices to affected property owners. … These are 60-day … notices to businesses to comply, and 90-day notices to residents. These notices do not have any penalties or fines associated within that period, only after the period. We also give them an opportunity to be heard in the appeal process.”
Ogumoro said the enforcement of the Blight Act should not be “paused.”
“I know everybody is concerned about the penalties and fines, but we have a process. We give courtesy notices for them to begin removing the blight, to clean the overgrown vegetation or remove the nuisance, within that period. This is not a manner of fining people, or giving them penalties. It is very clear the Blight Act’s intention is to clean our island, and make it look nice,” Ogumoro said.
“We need to start somewhere, every … member of the public and even Zoning — we all share the responsibility to make sure that our island is safe and clean, and attractive because it benefits everybody. [We want] our children and our residents [safe] from these dilapidated structures, and safe from unwanted criminal activities that are surely being done in these types of buildings, which [are] an eyesore to visitors. [The Blight Act] serves the purpose of increasing and promoting our good and attractive image to our residents, the general public, visitors and also developers. It highly contributes to improving our economy because it sustains the values of the properties overall and that would entice investment opportunities. We are all concerned about our main industry, tourism. This is really connected with that. We have to improve and rehabilitate our communities, to look good and … to attract investors and visitors,” she said.
As for the property owners who were given notices, Ogumoro said the Zoning Office is working with them to ensure their compliance.
“We just don’t serve the notice and that’s it, you have 90 days. We do compliance meetings with them and guide them to steps to remediate the nuisance within their property,” she added.
She said they have received positive feedback from property owners who have been given notices.
“They are very willing to correct and improve their property,” she added. “We have given them a timetable to work with what they need to do to improve their property, whether simple boarding, removal and replacement of dilapidated materials. It will take time so it’s better we start now than later,” she added.
The Zoning Office’s priority areas are Beach Road, Middle Road and the tourist district.
Ogumoro said of the 35 property owners cited, none have been issued penalties.
“But [for] the first batch, this month is the deadline to comply. We are actively meeting with them to assist in what they would like to propose on how to improve their property,” Ogumoro said.
Among other things, the Blight Act regulations give the Zoning Office “the right to proceed with an action to hold the property owner personally liable for the cost of correcting the offending condition, and/or to place a lien on the property or on other property of the owner.”
A property owner who requested anonymity told Variety, “I’m sorry, but the government should never ever have any authority to impose an additional monetary burden on the people and then have the audacity to take the properties away by virtue of a law they created in the first place. This will only create an avenue for abuse of the law that punishes the less fortunate and rewards those who are not. What happens to those properties? They’ll be auctioned off to the highest bidder and the original owner will now be homeless.”
The Zoning Office held another outreach presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at William S. Reyes Elementary School from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The next event is set for Thursday, Feb. 6 at the Tanapag Youth Center from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.