JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Councilman is working on new legislation that aims to better protect and restore historic properties in the city\u2019s historic neighborhoods. <\/p>\n
Historic neighborhoods like Springfield are full of beautifully restored historic homes, but also historic properties that are literally falling apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see the potential in these properties and to see them neglected to the point that they are deteriorating, is just heartbreaking,\u201d said Chrissie Cudd.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Cudd is a real estate agent who has lived in Springfield for 16 years.<\/p>\n She argues those rundown properties aren\u2019t just an eyesore, but also a drain on surrounding property values.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can hurt the resale on some of the properties that are for sale when that buyer is not rejecting the property, they\u2019re rejecting the block,\u201d said Cudd.<\/p>\n Currently, foreclosing on or reclaiming historic homes often requires going to a court, and can cost the city tens of thousands of dollars, which isn\u2019t always worth the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these landowners have owned these properties for 10, 15, 20 years or more and they\u2019re just allowing these properties to fall apart. They\u2019ve got fines, they\u2019ve got liens,\u201d said Councilmember Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7).<\/p>\n Now, Peluso is working on legislation he hopes will incentivize the owners to put in the work, or sell to someone who will.<\/p>\n He said his idea is to put owners of historic properties in Springfield, Avondale and Riverside on the clock, giving them two or three years to restore their properties, or give them back to the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make sure there\u2019s a reverter so that, hey, if you don\u2019t fix this property by \u2018x\u2019 day, it reverts back to the City of Jacksonville and we do find someone that can do it,\u201d said Peluso.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Cudd said she thinks the plan could work and give surrounding neighbors a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not adding a new process, but it\u2019s taking the process we\u2019ve got and simplifying it, speeding it up and making it much more feasible for the city to be able to act,\u201d said Cudd.<\/p>\n Peluso is holding a public meeting on his legislation next week.<\/p>\n If he\u2019s able to get enough support from his fellow council members, he believes the legislation could clear the finish line sometime in September.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Councilman is working on new legislation that aims to better protect and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,13367,143401,143402,969,116,118,117,971,55599,970,18639,634,143403,7909,24182],"class_list":["post-350457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-avondale","tag-chrissy_cudd","tag-cudd","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stan","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jimmy_peluso","tag-local","tag-palusa","tag-riverside","tag-springfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}