FRANKLIN — To address the lingering presence of vacant lots in town, the Franklin City Commission is looking at ways to streamline the process of selling city-owned property. 

When abandoned property ends up in the city’s hands, the buildings on the property are usually demolished, according to Ronnie Clark, who’s been mayor for six years.    

“Since I’ve been here, we have probably condemned 30 houses and torn them down,” Clark said, adding he expects another 30 to be condemned in the next three years. 

“There are a lot of houses that are slowly deteriorating and no one wants to move into them,” he said.

This has resulted in numerous vacant lots, which the city has to maintain, he said.

The idea of introducing a process to purchase property from the city is intended to give people who could use the land for something valuable an easier way to access the land. 

“It’ll hopefully take some property that is unproductive and put it in productive mode,” he said.

Community development director Tammie Carey said there is no policy for purchasing land from the city. 

“In the past, we have just auctioned off the properties and unfortunately that didn’t always work,” she said, adding that buyers don’t always take care of the property, which starts the process of condemning, foreclosing and seizing it over again.

“We continue to maintain and mow those properties, which is a burden on the taxpayer,” she said. 

The city commission’s main goal with this ordinance is to cut down on the number of vacant properties the city has to maintain, Carey said. 

“We’re just trying to be creative and get the property into the hands of an owner who wants to develop the property and take care of it,” she said.     

City attorney Scott Crabtree is writing the ordinance, which will be heavily based on guidelines and steps for acquiring a city property, which Carey wrote, he said. 

According to Carey’s steps, the community members interested in the property must put together a proposal for what they want to do with the land. Once the city transfers the deed, the community development director monitors the development’s progress, the document said. 

If the new owner doesn’t follow through on their proposal, the Property Maintenance Board will have the option to take ownership of the property, it said. 

Crabtree said he doesn’t expect to veer far from what Carey has suggested in writing the ordinance.

Because seized property often goes unused, foreclosing on one “more often than not” costs more than the property is worth.

“We just don’t want to have an inventory of vacant lots that we then have to take care of,” he said.

The ordinance is expected to be ready for a vote by the next city commission meeting, scheduled for May 9. The ordinance would require two readings to pass.    

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.