Medford City Council passes two ordinances to clean up derelict houses

Medford, Ore. — After years of discussion, the Medford City Council has approved two ordinances designed to clean up derelict homes.

At the noon meeting on Thursday, the council voted to adopt an international property maintenance code, which will set certain standards for houses. It also approved an ordinance that will allow the city to take control of any property that isn’t being maintained.

“There’s steps we have to go through, but at the end of the day, we think we’ll be able to force people to clean up properties that are a chronic nuisance, places that are drug houses, places that the neighbors know they have bad things going on that are affecting everybody’s quality of life, everyone’s property values,” Councilor Daniel Bunn said.

The ordinances are designed to address boarded up properties in the city that aren’t being lived in or taken care of. They allow the city to take ownership of them and fix them up, if the current owners don’t comply.