When it comes to revitalization, one of the county's biggest challenges is the Bensley neighborhood located off Jefferson Davis Highway north of Defense Supply Center Richmond and south of the Richmond city line. Decades ago, the opening of Interstate 95 gave motorists a faster alternative to Route 1, causing the commercial corridor to almost become a ghost town. Many of the businesses that remain there today are trailer parks, gas stations/convenience stores and businesses with homemade signs catering to the area's growing Hispanic population.

The retail impact proved to be a catalyst for the decline of residential neighborhoods too. On the west side of Jefferson Davis Highway as Chesterfield's oldest subdivision, Bensley has many homes built over 50 years ago. Today, it's a haven for Chesterfield's lower- and middle-income working class and seniors. Modest homes - many of them brick ranchers or simple one-story homes - are small by today's standards. Chain-link fences ring a number of homes, and others feature freestanding aluminum carports in lieu of garages. Drainage ditches, not sidewalks, border neighborhood roads, creating no visual sense of connection.

As longtime residents grow older and the neighborhood continues to mature, Bensley is changing. One resident, who declined to be identified, said many elderly residents are selling their homes, and often those homes are rented to minority groups. "I doubt I can get the money out of my house," the resident confided.

Despite rising assessments, Margaret Davis, vice president of the Bensley Civic Association, says homes sell quickly in Bensley because they are more affordable than elsewhere in the county. "Many of the resales are becoming rental properties for investment purposes," Davis said, "and they're not being kept up as they used to be."

Renae Eldred, who serves on the county's Sustain Our Communities Committee (SOCC) and lives on Sherbourne Road in Bensley, recently surveyed her street and told the SOCC that 10 of the 48 homes were rental.

The county has been actively working with the Bensley community to help prevent further deterioration. Davis praised county officials - Director of Revitalization Tom Jacobson and the zoning department in particular - for the support her group has received. But some market forces continue to work against Bensley.

Quoting data from a 2004 study in the Jefferson Davis corridor north of Route 288 that includes Bensley, Jacobson says the research confirms Davis' impressions. "There was a positive correlation between rental properties and deterioration," he said. Back then, 23 percent of the 1,931 single-family homes were rental properties, but they represented 67 percent of the dilapidated homes.

That study reported that 14 percent of the homes were "dilapidated or showing heavy wear and aging," 37 percent had moderate deterioration and 49 percent were acceptable.

But even boarded up homes by themselves don't meet the definition of blight, the legal term that gets the county actively involved.

"We require homes to be boarded up if they are vacant to keep them safe," explained Bill Dupler, director of building inspections. "The blight ordinance focuses on dilapidation that affects the public's health, safety and welfare. The standard is pretty high. A home has to be condemned for a year without corrective action, have a rat or rodent infestation, three separate violations for maintenance code or criminal law violations, inadequate plumbing or sewage, be a nuisance to children, a severe fire hazard or have substantial dilapidation, such as interior or exterior problems that could cause it to collapse."

Since the county's legal requirements for blight are substantial, the legal process can't be streamlined because the standards are set by the state. "It's an easy 120 days from the first phone call," said Dupler.

First the owner has to be notified, and often the property owner is given more time. If the property owner doesn't provide an acceptable action plan, there's a public hearing before the planning commission. Without adequate response, the board of supervisors then holds a public hearing before a decision is rendered. Along the way, either body can grant the property owner more time.

Peeling paint or the color of the house is not a violation, but rotting wood is. Last year, Dupler's department responded to 190 calls about homes and other buildings in the county. Only two were ruled blighted.

"There is a balance of private property rights and the community as expressed by government," explained Jacobson. "We tend to favor property rights because that's our culture. The laws [on blight] are weaker than neighbors expect."

Unfortunately for concerned citizens, most of the problems tend to occur in older neighborhoods that were built before planned communities became vogue, placing the emphasis on county enforcement. For planned communities with mandatory covenants that set standards for homes and yards, enforcement is much easier - especially if the community association has a paid staff member doing inspections.

The county is studying more restrictions concerning blight and reviewing resources for enforcement. Planning Commission Chairman Russ Gulley is pushing an ordinance that would prohibit parking on grass instead of driveways.

In February 2007, the county zoning department cited the occupants of 2634 Sherbourne Rd. for having two inoperable vehicles on the property. On June 3, there were six vehicles parked there, though it isn't known whether any of them is unlicensed.

According to the unnamed Bensley resident, the home houses day laborers who pay $100 weekly "for sleeping space only" in the basement. Employers reportedly drive up to the house in the early morning hours and honk their horns, signaling the workers that their ride to work has arrived.

The county does have an ordinance that regulates the number of unrelated persons who can live in a single-family house. The maximum is four unless they are related "by blood or marriage," but enforcement is difficult because police need to be invited inside the residence to determine how many persons live there. Even then, the workers from outside the country often "claim to be cousins," said Ted Barclay, Chesterfield's code compliance supervisor.

"Those are challenging cases," he added.

By August, Dupler expects to brief county supervisors on the subject. One item to be discussed is the difficulty of enforcement. The SOCC is also briefing the board on their work so far.

The most legally difficult case Dupler could recall happened over 10 years in Bon Air. A divorced father set his house on fire, and when emergency vehicles arrived, he committed suicide. Because the fire wasn't accidental, insurance wouldn't pay for damages, and the house, burned out and covered with a tarp, transferred in his estate to his 8-year-old daughter. Chesterfield used its blight ordinance, but the wheels of justice churned very slowly for more than two years.

The SOCC, a countywide group of citizens who receive support from Jacobson's staff, has been meeting monthly and helping communities to organize community associations. Latisha Jenkins is the contact person at 748-1065 or jenkinsl@chesterfield.gov.

Check out more stories in this edition of the Chesterfield Observer, now a weekly publication.