VIDALIA — The Vidalia Board of Aldermen intends to adopt next month an ordinance board members say will help clear and make blighted properties safer.

The board voted to pre-file the ordinance Tuesday, which means it will have a public hearing next month to discuss the proposal before it can be adopted.

The issue of blighted properties is one Alderman Tron McCoy has pushed for some time, and has raised multiple times in recent months. He said the recent collapse of a long neglected building in his district highlights the need for a law clarifying the city’s procedure for cleaning up blighted or dangerous properties.

“I got the call at 6:30 a.m. that the building had fallen down,” he said. “If it had been an hour and 15 minutes later, there would have been children passing by. (With this ordinance), we have the tools necessary to take care of these situations. I have some more properties (in my district) where people could actually get hurt. I am sure children go in and out of these properties when no one is looking.”

McCoy said blight is often the result of residents dying without a clear succession lined up for ownership of their property.

“We get people who passed on and never wrote on a piece of paper, ‘My next of kin gets it,’ and so we have properties where the grass grows up and wild things live on it,” McCoy said.

Vidalia Grant Writer Teresa Dennis said the template for the ordinance was drafted with legal advice from the Louisiana Municipal Association. The city has previously used state statutes about the condemnation of property in its moves to clear blight, she said.

McCoy said the new ordinance would allow the city to take advantage of changes that have been made in state law about how municipalities can address such properties.

Dennis said she has a sample of checklist officials in New Orleans use when declaring a property blighted, and it is extensive.

“It is about 100 pages of documentation,” she said. “This is people’s property we are talking about, and we take it very seriously.”

Having a better way to address the issue will ultimately improve the experience of those who visit Vidalia, McCoy said.

“We have the riverfront in Vidalia, but the only way you get to the riverfront is through District 1 and District 2, and you have to pass blighted properties to get there,” he said.