NICHOLAS COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — It was standing room only at an hours-long, lively county commission meeting focused on property ordinances at the Nicholas County Day Report Center, and this comes after the meeting was moved from the courthouse due to overflow.

Hundreds of people came to make their feelings known about two ordinances that the Nicholas County Commission put forward that would have given the county commission a process to regulate and enforce properties deemed unsafe or unsanitary. Right now, towns and cities have the ability to do this but not the county without ordinances on the books.

During the public hearing, of the dozens who spoke, everyone either wanted the proposed Nicholas County Property Safety Ordinance and the Nicholas County Land Reuse Agency to be reworded or abandoned all together arguing it would be government overreach.

Commissioners assured the people that they would all be voting no on this measure, which left many wondering why it was ever brought forward in the first place.

Vic Blankenship, one of the people who spoke at the meeting, shared similar concerns with others in that he felt the wording was forceful, was full of government overreach and the potential for government corruption when it comes to enforcing property upkeep, cleanup and demolition.

“We don’t want this to get started,” Blankenship said. “That property belongs to me. My family, just like everybody else around here, mostly hands their land down. You paid your taxes on it. It belongs to you. Like I said, in town, it’s understandable, but in the country – that’s all I got to say.”

Commissioners told those in attendance that they were approached by the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority to put a safe structures ordinance and land use agency ordinance on the books in an effort to help tear down dilapidated, abandoned structures.

They were told it would be best to model their ordinances after another county’s, so they settled on Webster. The goal was to get their ordinances to be in compliance with state code in a way that would grant them access to state and federal funds to tear buildings down.

However, Commissioner Gary Roberts said once they started understanding some of the fine details of the ordinance and talking with people in the community, that they realized it was not a suitable ordinance. There are parts that give the county commission authority to do things like regulate vegetation on private land and the cleanup of refuse.

When asked about why they went ahead with the readings and public hearings of the ordinance when they were not in support of it, Roberts said they still wanted to go through the process and hear from the public.

“On the initial onset, I would’ve voted this through because I looked at it through pure eyes. My goals were genuine. We were going to tear down structures,” he said. “Once I was showed the other side, I started looking at it from a different perspective and I saw there’s all kinds of broadness and overreach going on here.”

Several people referred to this as an effort for government to “land grab.” Speakers expressed concern that it does not just address dilapidated homes but also vegetation, barns, cars, and even deer stands and gives the commission more power over private properties.

“The notice shall inform the owner that photographs will be taken of the property in question and/or that soil samples may be taken from the property in question,” the proposed safe structures ordinance states. “However, any such entrance upon the property in question shall be made in such a manner as to cause the least possible inconvenience to the persons in possession.”

They said it leaves room for subjectivity and leaves it up to the commission to decide what is dilapidated, overgrown or an eyesore.

The Nicholas County Property Safety Ordinance would have also required the hiring of new positions in Nicholas County, like an engineer and a litter control officer and set up an enforcement agency to take the complaints to.

Lyle Neal, one of the speakers, said instead of making this a forced process, it should be more voluntary, and people should first approach homeowners with funding to work with them.

“Rather than hire four to five people and pay them $50,000, take $2,500 and go up there and offer to help somebody clean their house up. I mean, let’s get real,” Neal said. “I’m a contractor. If they give $2,500 and the bill’s $5,000 I’ll give another $500, so that makes the landowner doing a $2,000 job. That’s where you ought to be, not this stupid, idiotic stuff.”

Others brought up concerns about Nicholas County Commission President Garrett Cole working as a realtor and that it could create conflicts. He has repeatedly said he has nothing to gain from these ordinances and asked the county attorney several times throughout the meeting if there were any conflicts to which the county attorney repeatedly replied, “No.”

However, the commissioners and the public shared the concern that the wording in this could open up the door for that type of corruption going forward.

The ordinances would be up for third reading in January, but commissioners say they would like to abandon these altogether and possibly rework them, but some told them they wanted no version of either ordinance.

Garlin Mahon, who lives in Nicholas County, went down the line asking each commission if they would vote for it. All three said no.

“Then we don’t need to be here, and you guys need to be held accountable,” Mahon said. “If you vote for it, then you need to be voted out. You have the power. Vote them out if they don’t do your will. They’re elected to serve the people.”

Commissioner Craig Chapman, though a no vote and a member of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, did ask for suggestions on how to crack down on the dilapidated structure problem.

Some suggested that it needs to be something where the county approaches homeowners if more of a voluntary fashion to work with them on making improvements. They also suggested that this type of work needs to be left up to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Protection.