While the majority of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners have supported issuing a 90-day ultimatum to the owners of three commercial buildings deemed hazardous for human occupancy, one dissenter on the board says not so fast.
“The option doesn’t have to be demolition,” Commissioner Jon Cawley said Thursday of the potential razing of the structures by the city government if owners don’t take corrective action by that May 18 deadline.
Cawley was echoing comments he had voiced at the last council meeting on Feb. 17, when the commissioners voted to take this route for the three. “It looks like we’re setting ourselves up for going in on Day 91 and spending some sum of money,” he commented then.
Included are the old Koozies/Quality Mills facility at 455 Franklin St; the former Mittman body shop at 109 S. South St.; and what is referred to in municipal documents as the “red building” at 600 W. Pine St. beside Worth Honda.
But Cawley, who was the lone dissenter on Feb. 17 in each of three separate 4-1 votes to set the deadline for the trio of structures, questions both the intent of the city and possible expenditure of taxpayers’ money as a result.
“So it looks like we’re going to spend $800,000 to tear down these people’s property,” Cawley speculated. “That’s where we look like we’re headed.”
Should this scenario unfold, the municipality could offset the cost of that by selling materials salvaged from the razing and filing liens against the owners which would require the demo costs to be satisfied before the land could be sold.
Cawley suggested that the goal for officials supporting this is for the city government to somehow gain control of it, including being seized through eminent domain.
“It looks like our plan is to take the property away from the owners.”
Cawley said he doesn’t believe private property rights are being taken into consideration at this stage, including providing owners with itemized lists of what is needed to bring the buildings into code compliance — which apparently hasn’t occurred.
“To repair these buildings they’ve got to have a list,” he said Thursday in reiterating and/or elaborating on his previous remarks.
Cawley thinks respecting private property rights “should be at the top of our (city officials’) list.”
Even before last week’s votes, Cawley had anticipated what was about to unfold.
“I came here tonight kind of frustrated.”
A grand plan?
“It’s not that the buildings are in great shape,” Cawley added Thursday in acknowledging that they do pose problems.
Yet he questions the overall motivation for targeting the three sites located in the highly visible area at the confluence of West Pine, South and Franklin streets — when other deteriorating commercial properties are being ignored. He cited one such case involving a building in the vicinity of Mount Airy High School.
“Let’s be consistent.”
Interested observers think some grand plan is envisioned for the area containing the three buildings, but Cawley has no inkling as to what.
“There seems to be some idea of a higher and better use of that land,” he said in reference to certain Mount Airy officials and other parties.
About six years ago, a now-defunct redevelopment commission had designating the area containing the buildings as blighted, which was accompanied by talk of condemning property there and making it a “gateway” to the downtown section.
This included possibly establishing a roundabout traffic pattern there.
Cawley says the majority of the city council seems determined to raze the three buildings presently targeted. “And that’s problematic to me.”
Another concern he harbors involves how much a public safety hazard actually is being posed overall.
“What it looks like to me is two out of three of the buildings being dangerous,” Cawley said Thursday. “I don’t see the Mittman building as looking dangerous.”
It was disclosed since the meeting that this structure will be put up for public auction in April by its present owners, Gloria Mittman McNeil and Amy White, both of Lewisville.
John L. Worth, who is deceased, is listed as the owner of the red building located beside Worth Honda, with the matter falling to his widow.
The former Koozies building is owned by National Decon Holdings, LLC, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Other officials respond
Cawley’s fellow council members have painted a different scenario in supporting the 90-day notice being issued to owners, with their observations centered on safety concerns.
“It’s imminent hazard, not eminent domain,” Commissioner Joe Zalescik said at last week’s meeting in countering one of Cawley’s claims.
“We are not using eminent domain,” Mayor Ron Niland pledged in saying that step is employed only to obtain property for some worthy public purpose — which is not part of the procedure involving the three structures.
“It’s just starting the process of giving a 90-day notice,” Niland explained. “It’s not about going out and tearing down these buildings.”
In each case, property owners have had sufficient opportunities to act on their own, the mayor said, with a large packet of information assembled detailing notices of hearings with the city codes enforcement officer and other steps seeking remedies.
“The building inspector has talked to these people for years,” he related, with nothing transpiring as a result.
Zalescik said property owners’ lack of response suggests they don’t care about the buildings.
Niland said the council’s action will show them “we’re serious” about the matter.
“If we don’t do this, then there’s no incentive for them to do anything at all.”
City Manager Stan Farmer said he hopes property owners will act within the 90-day period.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com