Wheeling Council: Vacant Building Code Can Be Reviewed, But It Is Working
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WHEELING - City officials on Tuesday night agreed that Wheeling’s Vacant Building Code does a good job in keeping property owners from letting structures fall into disrepair, but council members noted that the code could be tweaked to be more flexible for those working to get their buildings occupied.
During Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council, several members commented on a recent case in Center Wheeling in which a building owner had been fined $7,000 after hitting snags with a significant redevelopment of adjacent buildings on Chapline Street. That investor, Lambros Tsuhlares, ended up selling the buildings and giving up on his plan to open an art studio in Center Wheeling.
"It may be worth looking at our Vacant Building Program to look at any tweaks that may need to be made, but this program is incredibly valuable," Councilman Ben Seidler said.
Seidler noted that in the past year or so, Wheeling City Council allocated $1 million to its demolition budget, resulting in the demolition of 75 dilapidated structures in the city.
"Losing 75 structures due to blight and dilapidation is horrible," Seidler said. "That’s one of the reasons why our Vacant Building Program is so important. It’s not really that overarching."
Under the code, for the first year a building on the registry sits vacant, there is no fee. For structures that sit vacant - both residential or commercial structures - on the city’s vacant building registry, the fee is $500 between years one and two, $1,000 between years two and three, $2,000 between years three and four, $3,500 between years four and five, and $4,000 for at least five years and up, plus an additional $300 for each year after five years.
The code allows for a process to have these fees waived for cases in which a building is undergoing renovations.
But those fees serve as an incentive for property owners to get their buildings occupied, city officials stressed, noting that vacant buildings can quickly become hazardous and bring down a neighborhood.
"That’s real money that the city would love to see people investing in their properties instead of handing it over to the city," Seidler said of the fees. "That’s incentive. That’s what keeps us from having to pass million dollar budgets to drop down 75 structures."
Seider said he would be open for discussion about ways to improve the code, but he emphasized its value.
"I don’t want to lose sight on how important this program is to the community," he said.
Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum, who represents the Center Wheeling neighborhood where the recent situation resulted in a social media uproar, agreed with Seidler.
"We want to encourage property developers and homeowners who own properties that may be on a vacant property list or blighted property list to invest in those properties," Ketchum said. "We also want to make sure that we’re not discouraging folks from buying properties in the city and being able to go through the development process."
Ketchum said she would be interested in looking at the city’s Vacant Property Code and potentially working to create a better exemption or "carve out" for people who are actively working to improve their buildings.
Councilman Jerry Sklavounakis - an attorney by trade - said he hoped to hold a Rules Committee Meeting in the near future to review the topic and to possibly make suggestions for some enhanced language in the code.
"Just so we can look over this and try to provide a better process so that what happened doesn’t happen again," Sklavounakis said.
Not all vacant buildings in Wheeling are on the city’s Vacant Building Registry, according to Building and Planning Director B.J. Delbert. Each vacant structure has to be reported or go through a process to end up on the list. Currently, there are about 312 structures on the city’s Vacant Building Registry in various stages of the process.
"Having been the former administrator of the Vacant Building Program, it was always our intention to first say ‘we don’t want your money - we want you to put your money into your building,’" Councilman Dave Palmer said. "Unfortunately you have such a large number because you can’t locate some of the owners. Some of the people just don’t want anything to do with it. You can’t bring somebody from Florida into our municipal court."
Palmer said the city is always willing to work with property owners. However, not all property owners are willing to work with the city on these issues, he noted.
"I think it is working the way it was intended, but I do believe that there should be discussion on tweaking it," Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said of the Vacant Building Code, which has been in place in the city for years.
Mayor Glenn Elliott suggested that the recent Facebook post and the barrage of comments complaining about the city’s action regarding the Vacant Building Code characterized a situation in a way that "was a stretch from what actually happened," indicating that an open line of communication between the public and the appropriate city departments can easily keep everyone on the same page and potentially avoid these kinds of situations.