City leaders are rolling out two proposals to raise rental fees on landlords and invest the proceeds in the community, possibly by demolishing blighted commercial buildings.
The council on Monday considered a rental registration fee hike, which by design will hit big time landlords the hardest.
Unchanged since it was established 20 years ago, the city’s sliding scale of rental registration fees charges as little as $15 for landlords with a single rental unit to $250 those with more than 100 units. A $10 late fee is added for payments received after Jan. 15 each year.
Under the current rates, the city collected $182,805 in 2016.
Under the proposed rates, which would take effect in January, annual fee collections are projected to jump to $439,320. The additional $250,000 in revenue for the city would be generated by replacing the sliding scale with a flat fee of $15 per rental unit and raising the cap from $250 to $1,500 for landlords with at least 101 units.
Roughly half the city lives in rental units compared to 35 percent statewide, according to U.S. Census data.
Many landlords, however, will see no increase under the proposal; City planners say 41 percent of rental units are owned by “mom and pop landlords who own only one rental unit.” Their annual registration fees would stay the same while one-time annual fees will snowball with each additional unit under the new system.
Rates at $15 per rental unit in Akron would remain competitive, though, at least for small-time landlords. A single registration fee is $35 in Cleveland, $50 in Fairlawn, $80 in Canton and $40 in Barberton, according to a comparison provided by the city.
“Only those that make a business of renting property in the city would see an increase,” said James Hardy, chief of staff to Mayor Dan Horrigan. “We felt it was more appropriate that any increase in rental registration should be borne by those who make a profit off of renting.”
The extra collections would go to the Department of Neighborhood Assistance, which responds when residents complain about deteriorating buildings and unkempt properties.
Dollars for demolition
Councilman Donnie Kammer jumped at the chance to spend the extra $250,000.
For two years, Kammer has served on Akron’s general code enforcement task force with members of Akron’s legal, fire, police and neighborhood assistance departments. The group has identified about 20 condemned commercial properties that pose a threat to public safety, are behind on taxes, require routine and costly city maintenance, are impeding development or all of the above.
As glass shards and crumbled bricks crunched beneath his feet, Kammer strolled down Morgan Avenue on Friday, passing a 72,650 square foot assembly plant built in 1929. The empty industrial building is among the most glaring eyesores in the city.
In the coming months, Kammer and city officials plan to introduce a “Vacant Building Registry.” The listing will include others like 355 Morgan Avenue that the city and communities say need to come down.
But while federal grants flow yearly to raze condemned houses, revenue streams to bulldoze blighted commercial buildings is harder to come by.
JF Hart Corporation, the national company that owns 355 Morgan Ave., is nonresponsive. It owes $182,467.17 in back taxes, a figure that grows each time the city pays to board up a window or put out a fire.
Local businesses also wish to see the building fall. Across the street, an auto body shop shines with fresh white paint and a brilliant red stripe. Next door, a manufacturer keeps the lawn free of debris and the grass low. A paved parking lot and a row of now leafless trees separate the Akron business from the bloated 355 Morgan Ave.
The building is infested with stray cats, and there’s signs of human activity inside. As Kammer drove away from the building — which he thinks about often though it isn’t in his ward — two teenagers exploded a fire extinguisher inside, then calmly walked out an open doorway and continued on down the street.
“Obviously something needs to be done,” said Kammer. “We can’t just keep talking about it. This property has been on the list for years.”
Kammer said the vacant building registry and the influx of revenue from rental registration fees — though providing barely enough in a year to tear down a single building the size of 355 Morgan Ave. — could provide seed funding to tear down smaller commercial properties.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .