Hendersonville is offering property owners up to $13,000 to tear down vacant buildings along the city's main corridors, part of a broader push by Mayor Jamie Clary to tackle blight citywide.

The grants, called BRIGHT (Blight Removal Incentive Grant for Hendersonville Training), let police and firefighters train inside the structures before they come down. Officers can practice room clearing, breaching and hostage scenarios. Firefighters get space for search-and-rescue drills, ventilation exercises and mock fire scenarios, Clary wrote in a column published Oct. 22 in Main Street Media of Tennessee.

The program is voluntary. The city will waive demolition permit fees and contribute planning department funds toward costs, but property owners remain responsible for the demolition itself, according to the column. Clary said the city plans to approach owners of buildings or houses that have sat empty for extended periods or have a history of code violations, NewsChannel 5 reported Oct. 16.

The grant amount depends on the building and how much training first responders can get from it. Funding is budgeted for the current fiscal year, which ends in June.

In the NewsChannel 5 report, Clary said the $13,000 could make the difference for some owners between tearing down an empty building and leaving it standing.

Clary pointed to a "handful of empty buildings on West Main" that he said give an abandoned impression, even though they currently meet code. One or two had past violations, he wrote, but are now in compliance.

The BRIGHT grants are one piece of a larger strategy Clary outlined in his column, drawing on the "broken windows" theory that visible decay invites worse problems. Other efforts include:

  • A Clean Team that picks up litter, removes weeds along sidewalks and replaces street signs.
  • Grants for business owners to replace outdated signs and upgrade building façades on visible roads. The Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved both programs.
  • A requirement that new developments bury utility lines underground.
  • A project to bury utility lines along Main Street, underway since the 2024 tornado.

On the policing side, Police Chief Jim Jones and Lt. Chris Gagnon established a retail theft task force. Shoplifting calls for service dropped to 118 over the past 12 months, down from 160 in the prior 12-month period, according to Clary's column.

Clary wrote that the city's police officers write more warnings than tickets, with the stated goal of safety, deterrence and visibility rather than punishment.

The city has not announced a specific application deadline for the BRIGHT grants. Funding runs through the end of the fiscal year in June.