Will more vacant ‘derelict’ properties get demolished? City Council discussion this morning
Beyond that map, the city won’t get any more specific about which vacant “derelict” properties could get speedier demolition approval if a proposal from Mayor Bruce Harrell gets City Council approval. Its first official discussion is this (Tuesday) morning, when the council’s Public Safety Committee meets. In the announcement of the “emergency” legislation, the mayor’s office said that there’ve been 30 fires in vacant buildings this year as of last Monday, adding:
SFD has identified over 40 vacant buildings in the city that are potentially impacted by this legislation and estimates that up to 10 properties may be addressed by this legislation each year. Depending on the degree of damage, the size of the building, the construction type and materials, the presence of asbestos, and other site-specific conditions, fencing and demolition costs will vary significantly. Property owners will be responsible for work to make the building or property site safe. In extreme cases, the City will be authorized to do the necessary abatement work and then place a title lien on the property to recover costs.
So which buildings are they talking about? We asked on Friday and got this response today from SFD spokesperson Kristin Hanson, to whom the mayor’s office forwarded our request:
There is not a public database that lists which properties are on SFD’s dangerous/derelict buildings list. SFD has a list that we use internally as we work with the Law Department to determine enforcement activities. Buildings on the SFD list are flagged derelict for multiple reasons to include structural issues, history of illegal or unauthorized entry, damage to the exterior that may have allowed further structural compromise due to exposure to winds and rain, and other similar reasons. SFD’s list is a subset of the Vacant Building Monitoring List, which is managed by SDCI.
If you want to check on whether a particular vacant property is being monitored by the city, you can check the address in the Seattle Services Portal. Meantime, you can watch this morning’s 9:30 am meeting via Seattle Channel; here’s the agenda, which also explains how to comment. This is one in a long line of city attempts to deal with the problem of vacant properties; we’ve covered several dating back 15 years, including expansion of the monitoring program five years ago.
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