Halo Effect: Leaders Hope Code Compliance Successes Spur Revitalization
Wednesday, July 26th, 2023
"The people of Dalton work hard for their money," said code compliance inspector Dan Lewallen. "They deserve to come home to a place they're proud of."
That's how Lewallen explains his mission in north Dalton and other areas of the city where there are a number of blighted structures. The City of Dalton is focusing code compliance efforts to bring those residences and neighborhoods back to their former glory.
"Our goal is not to write citations, our goal is not to go to court," Lewallen said. "Our goal is to get people into a property they can be proud of."
City leaders are pointing this week to two success stories in Dalton's code enforcement initiatives. Renovations were recently completed at two residences that were previously in violation of municipal code. The structures, on Long Street and Liddell Street in north Dalton, now stand as shining examples of what's possible when property owners work with the city to get homes back into shape.
Caption: A before and after comparison of repair and renovation work on a residence on Long Street in Dalton
Long Street
Lewallen says that the residence on Long Street was a case that the code compliance office has been working with for a long time. Dalton's approach to addressing blight and code compliance issues is not to simply write a ticket and move on. Code compliance inspectors instead help property owners to make a plan to address the issues with their buildings and work with them to help accomplish those goals.
"(This house) was a hardship case," Lewallen said. "The family got into a position where they weren’t able to complete a lot of repairs that they’d planned over several years. They’d gotten into the demolition phase on a lot of things and had gotten virtually through an addition and then this hardship, so they weren’t able to finish that up."
When contacted by the city, the property owners worked quickly to address the issues that were easily fixed. From there, Lewallen worked with them to get the project completed.
"They quickly cleaned up some of the stuff like the rubbish around the house and the abandoned or inoperable vehicles around the house. Anything that they could do without a big financial investment they cleaned up really quick," Lewallen recounted. "When I see things like that I go out of my way working with those folks to do what they can with what resources they have. They saved up their money and they kept the outside of their house up to standard and we were patient with that one and they were finally able to come through."
Lewallen says the finished product is now making the street look better.
"I called them after I saw where the repairs were done and told them they’ve got one of the nicest looking homes on the block now," he said. "They seemed just ecstatic about it."
Liddell Street
The residence on Liddell Street was a slightly different situation in that it is owned by an investor who intended all along to renovate the structure. However, in a story familiar to many over the past few years, changes in the economy threw up some road blocks.
"(The investor) had bought a couple of properties and then as we know the way inflation has gone it just wasn’t feasible for him for quite a while to do a lot of the big repairs on some of these houses," Lewallen said. "And again, he would go in and make repairs as finances would allow for and that’s one where we were again, very patient and as long as he could show improvement we were working with him on it."
Caption: A before and after comparison of repair and renovation work on a residence on Liddell Street in Dalton
Now that repairs are completed, the Liddell Street structure is an example of the way city leaders hope all renovation stories wind up.
"Both of (these examples) are in the historic north Dalton area where the Crown Mill Village is and... the idea is that it just takes one," Lewallen said. "One house can raise the standard of a neighborhood just like one house can lower the standard of a neighborhood. And we feel like these are little jumping off points where people will drive by these houses and see a little bit of a hope of what the neighborhood could look like."
Revitalizing Dalton
"The city celebrated it’s 175th birthday just last year. With that comes a lot of aging structures whether that’s residential, commercial, or industrial," Dalton's city administrator Andrew Parker said. "At a residential level where we need housing more than ever, we also need to improve housing conditions and make Dalton an attractive place to live, work, and play."
Revitalization of blighted areas of the community is one of the six strategies being championed by Believe Greater Dalton in its new five-year strategic plan. The city's code compliance office is part of completing that mission in concert with the city's Public Works Department and efforts from private investors and volunteer organizations. Code compliance inspectors work to connect property owners with those resources whenever possible.
"Any time that a property owner presents a plan to the city that shows how they’re going to get into compliance, the staff is there to support them," Parker said. "If it involves making calls to different people or service providers, or non-profits, all those types of tools are on the table... I would say 90 percent of the cases are resolved at the staff level with the property owner and it doesn’t have to go to court."
"We’re really just inspired by these two properties in particular that in a critical part of town, one of the most historic parts of town in north Dalton that we have two great examples to... point folks to in terms of how to do it and how to create a plan and how to stick to the plan."
Ongoing Effort
The work is continuing throughout Dalton. The code compliance office works on code issues throughout the city but they are focusing efforts in three main areas of the city: north Dalton, the Lakeshore Park area, and the area around the Mack Gaston Community Center.
'I’m proud of our code inspectors because they’ve been working on many other similar cases that involve property similar to (these examples)," Parker said.. "Some are beyond repair, that’s why the city has created the demolition assistance program that property owners can sign up for and we can complete a tear-down service. But if there there are 'good bones' left and the owner needs to make these corrections, we work with them on that."
Caption: Another perspective shows repair and renovation work to the residence on Long Street in Dalton
The leaders of Believe Greater Dalton are also working on plans for "5 X 5" neighborhood cleanup and improvement initiatives similar to those that have spurred renewal and revitalization in communities like Macon, Georgia. In Macon, leaders focused efforts and resources on a five-block area in the community for five weeks at a time and were met with positive changes as a result.
While plans for those programs have not yet been put into motion in Dalton, city leaders have already seen the ripple effects of even small changes in neighborhoods.
"You always hear people refer to the 'halo effect' with these types of projects," Parker said. "It really inspires people around them to clean up their place and fix up their place and again - the great takeaway is that it improves property values when you’ve got nice-looking homes, even if it’s an older home. It really maintains and improves property values because there’s such a demand for housing in the city and the county right now."
