A questionnaire, sponsored by Logan City, found that 300 of 500 anonymous respondents recommended more neighborhood sidewalks and better maintenance of existing ones, plus improving how properties look and dealing with too many people in rental units.

One proposed solution: landlord licensing, said Alan Hinkley, chairman of the Logan Neighborhood Council - a city-appointed group.

"As good neighbors, you should be trying to take care of your property. It's for your own interest," said Hinkley. "We're not trying to infringe on property rights, but I think there should be some kind of minimum standard that people should be expected to live by if they want to live in a community."

Logan Mayor Randy Watts said that when he grew up in the heart of the city during the 1950s and early '60s, homes were taken care of by the owners. Today, he said, absentee landlords have abandoned the maintenance of many homes, and in some cases, units are overcrowded.

"It's just sad to go through the interior core of Logan and see what's happened," Watts said, adding that abandoned vehicles and other items suitable for the landfill are potential health and safety concerns.

While the city-sponsored neighborhood poll wasn't perfect, Watts said the findings are legitimate.

"I feel that the responses are pretty much an eye-opener of concerns that I also have," he said. "We have some blight. That's what's happening, and it's devaluing the properties."

But Smithfield resident Rick Rose, who owns a four-plex in Logan, said isolated incidents of deterioration do not warrant more regulation.

"I'm incredulous," he said. "To say that there's blight in Logan is not true. I'm sure the neighborhood council members are well-meaning, but with this type of push, they're generating and fostering contention within the community."

In response to what Rose characterized as the Neighborhood Council's "weighted poll," he and other concerned Logan property owners, Realtors and property mangers recently formed Logan Landlord Coalition. Property aesthetics - siding, paint and lawn maintenance - should not be regulated by the government, Rose said.

"The original intent of the founders of our country was free use of private property. That's eroding," Rose said.

"I would like to encourage everybody to stand up and start telling government officials on the local level to stop controlling our property to this degree.

abrunson@sltrib.com