The City regulates and enforces dangerous buildings through Article 1, Chapter 4 of the City Code. This section outlines the conditions which will lead to a building being considered a dangerous building. The purpose of these regulations is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public and to address and arrest blight.
Dangerous buildings vary in intensity and type of damage but share the unfortunate distinction of being the most severe type of residential code violations and pose the most risk to the surrounding areas. The causes of dangerous buildings vary from neglect and abandonment, fires (intentional or accidental), out-of-code repairs that do not result in a safe structure, or catastrophic damage from storms or vehicle accidents.
The City takes these dangerous structures very seriously and pursues owners to obtain compliance where possible; however if no steps are taken by the owner, the city will have a licensed contractor demolish the structure and bill the owner for the expense to the taxpayers.
The Heritage Commission is responsible for reviewing citywide applications of demolition permit that are outside the purview of the Historic Preservation Manager. This ordinance change would remove the Heritage Commission review requirement for dangerous buildings to be demolished by the City.
Addressing these buildings as quickly and efficiently as possible would address the purpose of the dangerous building regulations.