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Rising up, bearing down

A neighborhood group, fed up with absentee homeowners, pushes officials to crack down on the violators.

By SHERRI DAY
Published August 26, 2005

SWANN ESTATES - Everyone in the neighborhood knows the house. Weeds grow waist high. Trash piles up, drawing rodents. Neighbors say they see homeless people come and go.

For at least a decade, residents have complained about the property at 3902 W DeLeon St.

The absentee owners, Armando and Nanette Gutierrez, have accumulated a long list of violations with the city's Code Enforcement Department. With each infraction, they comply with the city's demands, only to violate the code again.

The Gutierrezes, who live in Northdale, did not respond to telephone calls or a visit from the Times.

Fed up, the Swann Estates Neighborhood Association recently declared war on the Gutierrez house and other properties like it. They want Code Enforcement to stiffen penalties for repeat offenders and to force owners to beef up routine maintenance.

"There's an uprising in the neighborhood," association president Maureen Uhlig said. "The house isn't secure. Homeless are living in there. Let's face it. That's a huge safety factor. I don't even let my kids ride their bikes around that area."

Fresh from a victory in which the association convinced the city to put speed tables on Swann Avenue, Uhlig sees the DeLeon Street property as an Alamo of sorts.

It is a last defense against what she fears could be a growing problem: houses left vacant by investors. Swann Estates is a neighborhood in transition, its houses ripe for teardowns or flipping.

Already, Uhlig said, the neighborhood has sprouted two more trouble spots.

Developers and real estate brokers said the three neglected properties in Swann Estates are an anomaly in an otherwise well-kept neighborhood. Most property owners work to maintain their homes or keep them rented out.

Still, the association turned to the community-based group N.I.C.E. - short for Neighborhood Improvement Code Enforcement - for help.

The group formed earlier this year to tackle code enforcement issues. N.I.C.E. will meet at Christ the King Catholic Church at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The group invited City Council members and officials from the city's legal department to take part in a discussion that is likely to center on Swann Estates' complaints.

N.I.C.E. founder Stan Lasater lives in Southeast Seminole Heights and sees an increase in vacant houses in neighborhoods from Hyde Park to Davis Islands.

"This is a huge issue in the entire city," he said. "People are passionate about stuff like this. Most of them know the homeowner's name. They know the exact address."

Mike Mondor's two-story home dwarfs his neighbor's vacant house at the corner of Church and Swann avenues. For nearly two years, the house has sat empty.

Last fall, Mondor and his wife called police to clear out vagrants who were congregating at the house.

"They were sitting down on chairs, and they had beer bottles and wine coolers," he said.

The house, at 4002 W. Swann Ave., sold in April to new owners, Beata and Ryszard Kozlowski of Lutz. Mondor met them and heard about their plans to tear down the old house and build a new, two-story one.

He's encouraged and eagerly awaits the new house.

In an interview, Beata Kozlowski expressed surprise that her neighbors took issue with her vacant home.

"They know that I'm going to build a house very soon, but you have to wait for everything for permits, all this kind of stuff," she said.

Still, Kozlowski said she is not sure if she will move into the house.

When pressed for further comment, Kozlowski hung up the phone.

Citations on the property date back to 1994 for infractions such as overgrown grass. Before the Kozlowskis bought the house, Code Enforcement cited it as a public nuisance.

Then, just last Friday, inspectors cited the owners for failing to mow the grass and clean the yard. The Kozlowskis have 21 days to respond, Code Enforcement officials said.

Just a few houses down the street at 4102 W Swann Ave. sits another house that riles the neighborhood. Plywood covers the windows. Vegetation overtakes the yard, littered with grungy plastic furniture.

Code Enforcement officials have made several visits to this house, too. Most recently, they cited the owner, Chad Evans, for having an "open vacant structure." He complied in July.

Neighbors said Evans has done little to improve the structure since he bought it in 2003. It appeared that he was in the process of demolishing the house, before work abruptly stopped, leaving it open to vagrants, neighbors said.

Uhlig doesn't consider the newest offenders the worst ones, but she won't let them slide. If she does, she fears they could become like the DeLeon Street house.

Last week, Uhlig wrote Mayor Pam Iorio and City Council members to protest. She asked them to act quickly to remedy the problems at 3902 DeLeon St.

According to Code Enforcement records, inspectors have cited that property 17 times since 1990. Violations ranged from "overgrowth," to "open vacant structure." Often, city employees have cut the grass, cleaned up and sent the property owners the bill.

In 2004, the owners paid $2,520 to settle a case and stop foreclosure. This year, the property was cited again.

The Gutierrezes bought the house in 1984 for $51,000, according to property records.

Neighbors say it has been empty for at least a decade. The Gutierrezes won't sell, Uhlig said. They have told some would-be buyers that they are saving the house for their young children.

Uhlig wants Code Enforcement to step in.

"I don't understand how they haven't looked at it and said, "Enough is enough,' " Uhlig said. "I guarantee you if this house were sitting next to them, we'd have had a solution yesterday."

Deputy Code Enforcement Director William Doherty said that the Gutierrezes appear to be abusing the system.

"I'm going to recommend that they go into criminal court over this," he said, perusing the property's list of citations. "That's where we're taking these repeat offenders now."

He also pledged to work with the neighborhood association and redouble his agency's efforts in Swann Estates.

But the Swann Avenue properties are far from egregious cases, he said.

The neighborhood has a 90 percent code compliance rate, he noted.

"I'm not trying to dismiss anything," he said. "I'm just saying we have to look at the big picture,too."

Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 09:43:30]