City Looking At Boosting Demolition Budget To $1M, Resurrecting Red X Program
Photo by Eric Ayres Trending
WHEELING -- Officials in the city of Wheeling are getting behind a multi-faceted approach to battling dilapidated properties in town, with proposals that include resurrecting a modern version of the city’s Red X program and increasing the city’s demolition budget to $1 million.
Members of the Public Safety Committee of Wheeling City Council met on Tuesday to discuss a variety of measures being considered to put a fight against blight on the front burner. The meeting came in the wake of a large fire that erupted on Wheeling Island last week at a property that had been partially demolished last year.
Portions of the structure remained standing until the blaze erupted last Wednesday night, resulting in a blaze that enveloped parts of Wheeling Island in smoke and putting dozens of firefighters on the scene around a burning three-story structure that was deemed unstable, creating even more of a safety hazard.
While fire crews were battling the blaze, Councilman Ben Seidler, chairman of the Public Safety Committee and resident of Wheeling Island, vowed to take a strong stance against dilapidated properties and owners who allow neglected, unsightly and unsafe conditions to continue.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Seidler proposed a number of measures to continue the push to address these problem properties, and the proposals seemed to garner support from fellow council members on the committee, as well as members of city staff.
Among the proposals were requests to make sure municipal courts are imposing the maximum penalties against code violators, for a review of all abandoned and dilapidated buildings that pose a safety risk, for city council to consider re-instituting its Red X program and to double the city’s already substantial annual demolition budget from $500,000 to $1 million.
"Obviously our city has taken a huge stance on this over the past year," Seidler said. "Our code enforcement department has completely turned their processes and technology completely upside down to make incredible strides to stop the bleeding, for the lack of better words. But we still have an incredible backlog of abandoned properties, dilapidated properties and vacant buildings that we need to deal with."
Seidler said at last check, there were 99 buildings on the city’s raze or repair list. The overall condemned property list in the pipeline of the court system may or may not include properties that the code enforcement department and fire department also list as a "do not enter" because of previous fires or other issues. City administrators indicated that they are working to make sure all departments are sharing information about these problem properties that come to their attention.
"Currently, it’s been made very clear to the municipal court judge as well as the building code department that if we get into a situation where we have a collapse or an emergency demolition, we will find money to do that," City Manager Robert Herron said. "We’re dealing with that right now on the Island with this fire, and there have been numerous examples of that over the last six months or so."
Officials supported Seidler’s motion to forward a proposal to raise the city’s demolition budget to the Finance Committee of Council for consideration.
The process of dealing with abandoned and dilapidated properties oftentimes involves owners who have been deceased or cannot be located, cases in which daily fines are issued by the courts against violators, situations in which the city obtains liens on the properties or circumstances in which the city ends up paying to have buildings demolished and removed. In many cases, it has become a long, drawn-out process, but officials said they are working to cut through the red tape and make the process as efficient as possible.
City leaders noted that Wheeling’s Red X program had put pressure on owners to address their dilapidated properties, and also let others in the community know that some buildings may be available to an investor who may have better means than the current owner to rehabilitate a property. Seidler said an example would be in the North Wheeling Historic District, where structures that formerly had Red X signs posted on the outside have since been rehabilitated and repurposed, and are now contributing to the vibrancy of the historic district.
Wheeling City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth said it has been around 18 years or so since the Red X program was active, but noted that it wouldn’t take much to reactivate it.
"We were one of the first in the country to utilize that," she said, noting that signs were posted on condemned buildings that listed the code, the owner and other information with a Red X. "I think there was some concern about ‘shaming’ the person, but it was not that. It was to show that they are on the code enforcement radar."
City staff members are expected to review and make a recommendation of proposals to bring back the Red X program and to have municipal court proceedings live streamed whenever possible.
Officials said they did not know exactly when or why the Red X program fell by the wayside at some point over the years, but guessed that there may have been a concern that several properties in a row with Red X signs posted on them actually presented an even worse appearance in some neighborhoods.
"Other cities are taking this on," Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum noted. "Detroit, Michigan, is one that has done this successfully. Rather than using a Red X, they apply a QR code that you can take on your phone, and it takes you to a specific website where that contact information exists. So it looks less frightening - it looks less like a Chernobyl incident occurred here with all of the Red Xs."
Seidler noted that the Red X label doesn’t come until a property owner has gone through the legal process and has earned the raze or repair order. They have not shown good faith in making progress to correct the issue.
"Folks that let this go beyond a reasonable time frame and continue to violate the municipal court orders absolutely deserve whatever shame that comes to them as a result of this," Seidler said.