Conventional environmental lawyers may find themselves in unfamiliar territory when faced with a municipal citation for allowing a vacant property to become a nuisance or a municipal claim to recover the costs of abating that nuisance. In Philadelphia, the city has a regular program to do both. That program proceeds under city ordinances and regulations, and not the more familiar state environmental laws. A special unit within the city Solicitor’s Office handles this code enforcement program and brings enforcement proceedings before a single judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

The city provides nuisance abatement services through the Department of Licenses and Inspections (L+I), the Streets Department, and other response teams. One typical nuisance the city manages is trash and dumping on vacant lots. There are approximately 40,000 vacant lots in Philadelphia, and of those, more than 300 are illegal dumping sites. A vacant lot can attract household trash, as well as scrap metal, furniture, tires, and construction debris containing lead paint and asbestos. These wastes pollute the city’s soil, groundwater, and air if not abated. The nuisance offenders can be both property owners who have neglected the lot and individuals seeking to dump material to avoid the costs of proper disposal. The costs to abate vary from each site, but one article suggested the city expends approximately $7,000 per day to clean up illegally dumped material from one vacant lot.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]