Nichols Hills keeps talking restrictions on teardowns

Nichols Hills is getting serious about discouraging people from tearing down old houses to make room for new ones, which is about the only way to build new when a place is full.

Discussion among Mayor Sody Clements, the three-member City Council and new City Manager S. Shane Pate II could come to a head and a vote at a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Of course, to even discuss anything legally and properly, the small council pretty much has to meet formally with a posted agenda, so Tuesday could just bring more discussion. The single item on the agenda is the same as at a special meeting on June 16:

"Discussion, consideration and possible approval of the following: Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding regulations and procedures for the demolition and remodel of homes."

"Possible approval" is boilerplate language. Plus, the mayor earlier said that a public hearing would have to come before any ordinances were passed. Note, though, that the usual "Citizens desiring to be heard" section of the meeting is on the agenda.

Grumbling about teardowns in Nichols Hills probably has been growing since the demolition of aged but fixable homes started 10 years or so ago. Maybe discontent grew when the right few people's grandfathers' old home places fell to the wrecking ball.

Maybe it picked up steam last year when oil man Tony Say completed his 10-year mission to buy a whole street of post-World War II cottages to remove to make room for his Cumberland Court project. (On the other hand, the consensus in Nichols Hills seemed to have been that hauling them away was a good thing.)

In any case, Pate, who became city manager only last spring, wasted no time getting the grumbling before the council and on the record. He meant to get serious attention, judging from his May 9 memo to the mayor and council, which is posted on the city website:

The discussion might lead to "never before considered proposals," he wrote. "For instance, recent research has discovered that at least one city considered a demolition tax of $25,000 plus $25 per year of a home's age." Yowza. Pate went on: "Such a tax structure could outline terms under which the tax might be waived or adjusted. Our current demolition permit 'fee' is $100."

He must have been talking about Mayor Charlie Hale's proposal for dealing with the same problem — only bigger, of course, since the city is bigger — in Portland, Oregon.

According to The Oregonian, Portland had 200 homes torn down to make room for new ones in each of 2013 and 2014. Hale pitched the $25,000 demolition tax in early 2015, but it was basically dead-on-arrival and declared as such in early 2016.

Such a drastic solution might not seem likely for Nichols Hills, although one wonders how much of a deterrent a $25,000 demolition tax could be in Oklahoma City's original enclave of luxury homes.

Regulation is the likely answer, coupled with some significant increase in demolition permit fees. Among other things, the council is considering spelling out in the city code what "demolition" and "remodel" mean.

That could help. Not long ago, one of the Nichols Hills Kitchen Tour homes struck me as so thoroughly "renovated" that it should have been considered a rebuild.