The Prince George’s County Council passed a package of bills Tuesday that would make it more expensive for commercial and residential building owners to let the properties sit vacant.
One of the bills would see the property tax rate jump to five times the normal rate for properties left vacant and dormant.
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Council Chair Krystal Oriadha, the lead sponsor of the legislation, said the current system gives property owners little reason to act. Some of the current fines for code violations can be as low as $1,000 a year, which in her words is “nothing” for the banks that might own the property.
A second bill increases penalties for owners whose vacant properties become run down or blighted.
Oriadha gave two examples of blighted properties in her own district.
In Temple Hills, a former bar has been vacant and boarded up for a decade despite its proximity to a Metro station.
“But they are not motivated to do anything with it to sell it, to renovate it,” Oriadha said.
And across from her own home, she said a fire-damaged, boarded-up house has attracted drug activity for years.
“There’s nothing anyone can do about it,” she said.
The goal of the legislation, Oriadha told WTOP, isn’t to collect more tax revenue. It’s to push owners to sell, renovate, or find tenants for properties that drag down surrounding home values and leave commercial corridors looking neglected.
“Sometimes we understand that we need to have stricter rules, regulations and laws to move the businesses in that way and motivate them to be partners in the community,” Oriadha said.
Another bill seeks to reward county residents who take a picture of code violations and alert the Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement to problems. They would receive a share of the fines collected by the county on that property.
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