On Thursday, July 13, the Town of Westbrook will hold a town-wide referendum vote to decide whether to adopt the proposed blight ordinance.

A copy of the proposed blight ordinance is posted on the Town’s website homepage at westbrookct.us. Interested readers should go to the town homepage and then scroll down below the posting of the Town Meeting Call and the Sidewalk Survey announcement to find a PDF of the ordinance. A click on the icon will open the document. The Town Clerk’s Office in the Mulvey Municipal Center also has a printed copy of the proposed blight ordinance available for review during business hours.

Also posted as Attachment 2 are notes from public comments offered at a June 2, 2016 public hearing on the ordinance.

The ordinance language addresses the purpose of the rule, lists definitions, describes how violation notices are issued to owners and states that owners are to be given an opportunity to remediate or correct the blighted condition before enforcement actions are taken by the Town. As stated in blight ordinance section 5.C “[a]n owner shall have a reasonable opportunity to remediate a blighted condition prior to any enforcement action being taken...”

Additional public discussion of the proposed ordinance and its provisions occurred at the Town Meeting of June 15, 2017. At that meeting, the Town Meeting action item to vote on the proposed blight ordinance was adjourned to a July 13, 2017 town referendum; polls at the Mulvey Municipal Center at 866 Boston Post Road will be open from noon until 8 p.m. on that day.

Eligible to vote in the referendum are those registered to vote in the Town of Westbrook and town property owners who are U.S. citizens with $1,000 or more in assessed property value listed in their name on the town’s property tax rolls.

Absentee ballots are available in the Town Clerk’s Office during business hours to eligible voters.