Panel Acts to Curb Abandonment of Buildings : City Hall: Committee orders drafting of laws to improve security at structures left empty. Shifting liens on such property to tax bills also is considered as a deterrent.

Reacting to a problem that has worsened with recession and earthquakes, a Los Angeles City Council committee took preliminary steps Monday to discourage building abandonment and to hasten procedures for protecting or demolishing vacant structures.

“We have to send out a message to the whole city, to every property owner, that we are serious about stopping this deterioration,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, which discussed the matter Monday.

The committee directed the city attorney’s office to draft ordinances that would replace the traditional plywood boarding at abandoned buildings with more secure metal grating to keep out the homeless and vandals, require eight-foot-high fencing around all abandoned property, give police more authority to arrest squatters and establish a toll-free telephone number for residents to report trouble at vacant buildings. The measures were expected to go to the full council soon, committee members said.

The committee deferred discussion on dozens of other proposals for coping with the growing number of abandoned buildings and to criticism about the city bureaucracy’s seemingly sluggish and confusing nature.

One plan would allow only 20 days (instead of the current 75) between a citizen’s complaint about a vacant building and the time the city arranges for its boarding and fencing. It also would shorten to 75 days (from 140) the time it often takes to demolish a hopelessly damaged structure.

Currently, costs for boarding and demolition usually are borne by the city and placed as liens to be repaid when the property is sold. But unpaid liens now total about $3 million, and some officials are urging reform that would shift liens onto annual property tax bills. That would allow the city to more quickly gain control over abandoned buildings and possibly give them to nonprofit organizations for affordable housing. Officials hope the threat will discourage abandonments.

Councilwoman Rita Walters reported that there are hundreds of abandoned buildings in her Downtown and South-Central Los Angeles district.

“These are like horror movies,” Walters said, displaying photos of badly vandalized houses and stores. “People are forced to live side by side to these year after year. And to many people, it feels like the city is doing nothing.”

As real estate values declined over the past two years, the number of abandoned properties monitored by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety increased 28%, to 1,381, about 80% of those single-family houses. In addition, about 1,800 other buildings remain uninhabitable because of damage from the Northridge earthquake last January.