What is 'clear boarding' and could it be Louisville's cure for blight?

Show Caption Hide Caption Clearboard, a safer alternative to using plywood to board up homes After August, plywood won't be allowed by Fannie Mae to board up homes. Clear board is an alternative.

Nestled at the corner of 28th and Market streets is a little white house like thousands of others in Louisville: It's empty and has been for years.

Pictures of the house on Google Maps show it marred with graffiti, both artistic and curse words, and boarded up at every possible entry point.

But now it stands out from the other boarded-up homes down the block. The graffiti has been painted over, and the windows and doors are covered with "clear boarding" a transparent, nearly indestructible polycarbonate plastic, not plywood.

"I thought they remodeled," Louis More said from his porch down the street. "It looks a whole lot better than boarded up."

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The clear boards could replace plywood on abandoned homes across Louisville as officials look for ways to address blight caused by vacant and abandoned properties. While clear boards are more expensive than plywood, supporters say using the plastic sheets could reduce vandalism, spruce up the block, promote the sale of properties and save taxpayers money in the long run.

"What's really important is you don't know the home is a vacant or abandoned property," said Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin, who is spearheading the idea.

It cost about $1,100 to fasten clear boarding on the Market Street home, which was owned by the city's land bank and one of the first to test the product. City officials said it would have cost roughly $300 to install traditional plywood, but they point out that the house had to be re-boarded several times.

Shanklin said she was promised a $350,000 allocation in the city budget to install clear boarding on abandoned homes that could be back on the market. That would be on top of $500,000 she said was pledged to demolish the most dilapidated structures.

The council's Budget Committee debated clear boarding briefly at its final hearing Tuesday, and it was decided – despite objections from Shanklin and other supporters – that the pilot program only needed $250,000 for the covering and $530,000 for the demolitions.

The full council will vote on the city budget, which takes effect July 1, on Thursday night.

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Bonnie Cole, president of the Shawnee Neighborhood Association, said she supports the initiative. She said boarded-up windows and tall grass were often a tell-tale sign that a house was abandoned.

"If you allow it to look like that, it will bring in people who don't have regular housing or doesn't have a place to stay, so they know they can make that their home for a while," Cole said. "So I'm hoping it eliminates some of that."

Cole said she often receives calls about vacant properties. "When you live in a community like that, it tears down the values of the houses, it creates additional problems for safety (and) health issues, (and) kids can pick up the needles the drug users are leaving" after shooting up inside the vacant homes, she said.

Louisville's clear boarding initiative follows a national trend. Fannie Mae, the federal government-sponsored mortgage association, announced in March it is no longer accepting plywood to cover up homes. In January, Ohio lawmakers banned the use of plywood for boarding up abandoned houses.

Two years ago, Phoenix, Arizona, became the first city to require clear boarding be installed on vacant and abandoned properties. Other cities such as Detroit and Cleveland have already begun using clear boards.

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Richard Blackmon, chief code enforcement officer in Columbia, South Carolina, said clear boarding has reduced trespassing in vacant homes there.

"I do know for a fact that we have much more repeat break-ins to the places that we've boarded with plywood versus the places that we've boarded with the plastic," said Blackmon, whose city received a grant to use clear boards on 10 to 20 buildings in the city.

Holyoke, Massachusetts has been using clear boards on homes the past few months. Building official Joe Meczywor said about 10 buildings have already been clear boarded and that costs usually range between $2,000 to $3,000 to board a house.

Last year alone, Louisville boarded more than 2,000 properties, according to Shankin's office. The initial costs for typical plywood boarding are about $25 to $35 per sheet. Clear boards cost $100 to $120 per sheet.

Shanklin's office says the costs for plywood add up when you take into account repeated applications and other costs such as vandalism, dumping and emergency calls.

"All you need is a hammer or crowbar, and people are known to take the plywood off and strip the house of copper, air conditioners and everything else," said Shanklin. "But with this you can't get it off unless crews take it down. It's too much noise to break in them so that's a big difference."

Though using clear boarding would cost the city at least four times as much upfront, Republican spokesman Stephen Haag Jr. said the cost isn't a deterrent for GOP members to support the initiative.

"We do believe that the durability of the clear board along with its likelihood to improve safety for police and fire as well as neighborhoods will make this a good and innovative way to preserve vacant properties," he said.

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The pilot program will launch in census blocks already identified as part of a city tax delinquency diversion program that prohibits the sale of tax liens on vacant and abandoned properties in certain areas for up to five years. It will provide data for the city to be able to demonstrate clear boarding's benefits, which Shanklin said could lead to third-party partnerships.

Shanklin said properties with high visibility on main streets, especially on otherwise healthy blocks, would be the priority for clear boarding.

David Hobbs, who lives next door to the clear-boarded house on Market Street, said that people used to tear down the plywood before the plastic was put up. He said he likes the clear board better and would like to see it used on more houses in the neighborhood because it looks better.

"I think that's what they need to do."

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courier-journal.com. Reporter Tessa Weinberg can be reached at 502-582-4168 or tweinberg@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Tessa_Weinberg.