City demolitions decline

or demolition activities,” she said.

Ms. Kennedy has “sole discretion to designate a structure as imminent danger of collapse and determine [it] unsafe for asbestos inspection and abatement,” Dr. Hacker said. In those cases, she said, the entire structure must be treated as though it contains asbestos, increasing costs.

More than 40 percent of city residential demolitions this year have been considered emergencies, according to the county.

Mr. Lamb said a relatively closed, phone-based process for awarding contracts likely helped inflate demolition expenses as well, although Ms. Kennedy said that was a shortterm practice that has been halted. The city allocates about $2 million a year for demolitions that can target both city-owned and private structures, including those that pose imminent health hazards.

A city database on Thursday listed more than 60 properties under contract to be razed. The city is “responding steadily” to buildings that need to be torn down, Ms. Kennedy said, but it wasn’t clear exactly how many will be toppled this year. She said a recent flurry of weather-related landslides will eat into city budgets.

She didn’t immediately know by how much. She left open the possibility that city officials could pursue a bigger demolition budget for 2019.

“It’s been a very expensive and unexpected spring,” Ms. Kennedy said.