EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton will soon require property owners sitting on vacant storefronts to register their buildings and pay a fee that will be used to create and maintain an online database of spaces available to rent in the city.

The new regulations, approved by the City Council last week, are aimed at curbing blight and encouraging use of abandoned and vacant properties, of which there are between 15 and 20 in the downtown area.

“There are other communities in Massachusetts that understand the importance of having a vibrant business district and trying to find ways to mitigate vacancies on the overall economy and liveliness of a city, and we recognize that as well,” said Salem Derby, vice president of the council.

Starting July 1, all property owners will be required to register vacant storefronts with the city’s building commissioner within 90 days of the space becoming empty. As part of that registration, the building owner will be required to pay a nonrefundable permit fee of $500 for the entire year the building becomes vacant.

The ordinance, initially proposed by the city’s Economic Development & Industrial Commission, seeks to reinvigorate vacant storefronts in the city’s business district, which includes Main, Union and Cottage streets, Derby said.

“I think if you go to Main Street, you’ll notice the vacancies a little bit more profoundly, and that does have an impact on our economy and the feel of Easthampton,” Derby said. “And I’m hoping that this is going to be something that we can use to one, show and highlight the buildings that are vacant in Easthampton for people that are interested to come and start a business here. And two, to be able to motivate landlords to be able to get a little bit more aggressive to find ways to lease or rent or otherwise occupy spaces that are currently empty.”

Registering blight

As part of registering vacant storefronts, owners will need to provide a name, address, telephone numbers, the property street number and its use, square footage, the identity and contact information of any property manager, if applicable, a statement as to whether the building is currently occupied, or the date upon which the space will become vacant.

If or when a building is no longer vacant, the property owner needs to provide the building commissioner notice on a form made public by the building commissioner.

“That registry would be able to be used by people who are looking to locate here,” said Derby, chairperson of the council’s Ordinance Committee which OK’d the ordinance by a 3-0 vote.

Enforcement of the ordinance is a “balance of sticks and carrots,” according to Derby.

“There is a cost to register a vacant storefront because the registry is going to cost money to build out and maintain,” he said.

The initial registration fee is $500 for the first year, $750 for the second year the space is vacant, and $1,000 for year three and each subsequent year that the owner’s property remains on the registry. Fees are required to be paid within 30 days of the invoice being mailed.

Property owners may apply for waivers of the annual registration fee if they can demonstrate evidence of a substantial financial hardship or if they can demonstrate that the building is being improved for future use.

Within the next three months, the city will develop a public registry on the Easthampton municipal website that will detail its vacant downtown properties, according to City Planner Jeff Bagg. Letters will be subsequently sent out to the property owners alerting them to the status.

Precinct 3 City Councilor Thomas Peake said the online database will act as a resource for both individuals as well as local chambers of commerce and real estate professionals looking for rental spaces for businesses.

“I’ve been helping some friends to find a space for a small business for the last six months and it’s been infuriating,” Peake said. “There are a lot of vacant spaces right now in Easthampton … I could spend the whole day on the internet and I couldn’t tell you who owns them, how to contact that person, what they want in rent, what the square footage of the space is like, what it’s zoned for … that information just isn’t there.”

Derby said that one of the exciting pieces of this ordinance came about in discussions with the Economic Development & Industrial Commission and the Planning Department.

With a written agreement, landlords who are currently trying to find tenants will be able to “mitigate the emptiness” and bypass the annual registration fee by using community artists to create an artistic display on the front facade.

In the event a vacant building is condemned, the owner will be required to not only pay the annual registration fee, but will also incur a condemned building fee of $500 per year to the building department until the building commissioner rules that the building is no longer condemned.

Modeled on others

The Ordinance Committee sought out other municipalities that had adopted similar ordinances, including Arlington and New Bedford, and used existing language to inform the city’s regulations.

Peake said he felt confident in what the committee had presented, adding that the fee numbers could always be adjusted if necessary.

“I just think that a really important thing that we need to keep in mind, particularly at this time, in our economic moment as a region, not just a city, is that what is going on in these buildings has an effect on all the other buildings and has an effect on the homes around the builders,” he said. “You really don’t have to look any further than one town over in Northampton to see what a bunch of vacant buildings downtown can do to a local economy.”

The ordinance requires property owners to maintain buildings and make repairs to broken windows and other elements deemed unsafe conditions by the building commissioner. Boarding up windows will be allowed only temporarily in the event of vandalism, security reasons, public health or circumstances out of the property owner’s control. Boards or coverings must be fitted to the opening size and colored to blend with the existing building color scheme.

The registry will be launched with the help of work already performed by the Economic Development & Industrial Commission. Before the volunteer commission submitted the ordinance proposal, members established a list of 17 vacant commercial and industrial properties downtown.

In December 2021, the commission sent letters to those property owners stating how vacant commercial and industrial properties can “degrade the vitality of local business districts, increase risks of fire damage, vandalism, unlawful entry, and can lead to other public health and safety hazards.”

Gwynne Morrissey, chairperson of the commission, said the registry makes available spaces much better known to business owners and entrepreneurs seeking a new location.

“EDIC’s efforts to sustain a vibrant economic environment in our city are quite wide-ranging,” Morrissey said. “Storefronts that are perpetually dark or in disrepair in highly visible places are a strong indicator to anyone who drives through about what our economy looks like. And we’ve had in recent memory and on some sites still have some long vacant storefronts in high-traffic areas where we’d ideally have more ‘activated spaces,’ something more aesthetically pleasing, something more inviting to city residents and visitors.”

Bagg said the registry will not serve as a huge “moneymaker.” While there are vacant buildings in the city, it is not a tremendous number.

“This is kind of that first attempt … to take inventory, to create a system, to hopefully nudge some of these storefronts along, but it is not it’s not a terribly long list,” he said. “I do have a good expectation that this will probably nudge a fair number of storefronts forward, which I think is the goal.”

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