63.0°,
A Few Clouds Village taking action with vacant homes
Despite being vacant and abandoned for years, 17 unkempt properties in Valley Stream have not gone unnoticed, and now, village officials are taking action against the property owners to spruce up their land.
Village Justice Robert Bogle is sending out the first wave of summonses this week to owners of deserted homes who have been unresponsive in years past. The first group of owners will be summoned to court in early June where the process to fix the properties up will begin. If individual homeowners do not appear in court, warrants for their arrests will be issued, Bogle said.
If a bank or corporation has taken a property over, Bogle will issue a summons to the managing agent of the land. Or, if the managing agent is difficult to locate, a summons will be issued against the bank or corporation.
“We’re concentrating on these because there are a group of cases where we’re not getting much of a response,” Bogle said of the vacant properties.
Mayor Ed Fare said the village is upset with the state of the vacant properties, much like residents. “We have tried many methods to get the property owners to bring the houses into compliance,” he said, adding that because the owners of the properties are usually “absentee corporate owners,” there has been, for the most part, a “lack of common courtesy” that has been shown to the neighborhood.
Two homes that have drawn the ire of residents and village officials alike are 109 N. Cottage St. and 140 Dubois Ave. The home on Cottage Street has been vacant since 2001 while the property on Dubois has sat empty for nine years, according to Village Clerk Bob Barra. CitiMortgage owns both homes, Barra added.
“There’s no reason why these banks should be sitting on these properties for so long,” Barra said. “It’s terrible and we want to take a proactive, aggressive approach to this and see where it goes.”
Jeff Sharp, who lives on Amherst Road and only a few doors down from 140 Dubois Ave., said he’s at “wits end” when it comes to the vacant property nearby. When family and friends come to his home, he said, the first thing they see is the vacant, unkempt house.
