PANAMA CITY BEACH — Panama City Beach would be able to put the costs of cleaning up nuisance properties along Front Beach Road on owners’ property tax bills under a series of resolutions being considered by the city.
The City Council approved one of them, a resolution to allow the city to use the uniform method of collecting nuisance abatement non-ad valorem assessments, on Thursday. Two more resolutions will need to be passed to establish the resolution program, Assistant City Attorney Amy Myers said.
She said the resolution would allow the city over the summer, if need be, to levy the assessment on property tax bills for nuisance abatement expenditures the city has paid for this year. One of those bills is the money — about $115,000 — the city shelled out to demolish the aged Beach Club Motel. The city could levy the new assessment to recoup those costs, as well as attorneys’ fees, if the property owner doesn’t pay the bill.
Over the summer, the city covered the costs of demolishing the motel, which has been closed and fenced off for at least four years.
Without this assessment process, the city had the option of putting a lien on the property to collect for demolition costs, which could involve a lengthy foreclosure process. Myers said when the council had the discussion about implementing the assessments last year, it decided to only allow them in the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) corridor.
Mayor Gayle Oberst said the reason the city only included the CRA in the assessment collection zone is because that’s where the major nuisance violations occur.
“Our thinking was that in the subdivisions it’s like lawn mowing, and those kind of things” that are a nuisance, “and it’s too small to put on the tax bill,” Gisbert said.
Councilman Keith Curry asked legal staff whether the city needs to be concerned about being accused of going after one property owner by passing an assessment law.
“What we are going to use this for obviously is Beach Club Motel. Have we painted ourselves into a corner here where they can scream foul that we just did this to go after them specifically?” he said.
Myers said she doesn’t think the property owner would have a case.
“It will be applicable to any property that the city has performed nuisance abatement activities,” she said.
The assessment method would make collecting the money simpler and easier, city attorneys said.
Refinancing: Also Thursday, the council approved of refinancing bonds to pay for improvements to the Front Beach Road project that would save the city $4.2 million in interest costs during the next 16 years, city financial adviser Jay Glover said. Glover recommended the council approve of refinancing with Regions Bank and accept the 2.7 percent loan. The vote was 4-1, with Councilman Keith Curry dissenting.
The refinancing will reduce the city’s annual payment on the bonds, which is about $3.8 million, by about $275,000 a year, Glover said.
That interest savings gives the city more funds to help speed up the beautification and road improvements on Front Beach Road, city officials said. In particular the money could help speed up work on Phase 2 of the project from South Thomas Drive to Richard Jackson Boulevard. The council would not be locked into the loan with Regions until a final loan agreement is approved at a later date.
Curry said after the meeting that he supports refinancing but he wanted more research done before committing to Regions Bank.
“I believe it was fast-track just for one bank, and our due diligence hasn’t been done,” he said. “We just had a couple of weeks from when it was presented.”
In other action Thursday, the council: Approved and forwarded into its budget $150,000 to the city from the Tourist Development Council for additional security during Spring Break. “This is to help with added security, public relations on the sandy portion of the beach, and the congested areas in our city during the month of March,” Police Chief Drew Whitman wrote Feb. 18 in a letter to the council.
- Approved of applying for a $1 million grant under the state’s Transportation Regional Management program to improve Front Beach Road from Richard Jackson Boulevard to Hutchinson Boulevard.
- Approved of amending the Land Development Code to streamline the process for businesses to create outdoor eating areas. The change would allow businesses to get permission to have outdoor eating areas, which the city has been encouraging, through staff approval instead of the conditional use permit process. Planning Director Mel Leonard said some restaurants had balked at creating the outdoor eating areas because of the time and expense of the conditional use process.