City to target derelict homes

Demolition Board to start meeting this month

Derelict houses are targets for the city administration to continue improving Lorain’s neighborhoods, the city safety-service director said.

The Lorain administration is reviving the city board that would declare vacant, dilapidated and burned out houses to be nuisances to public health of the city.

The Demolition Board has scheduled its first meeting for Sept. 21 to consider what houses will be the next ones on the tear-down list.

“The condition of our neighborhoods is not acceptable,” said Safety-Service Director Dan Given.

In recent years, dozens of homes have been

razed in Lorain as part of city and county efforts to remove crumbling structures that become risks for fire or troublemakers.

When federal money was available for Lorain city and county to use for knocking down houses, the city created its Demolition Board of Appeals to examine conditions of buildings.

The board would condemn the most ramshackle of the houses, which eventually would meet the wrecking ball.

Demolitions slow down when money is not available, but Lorain will work with the Lorain County Land Reutilization Corp., or county land bank, to update the demolition list, Given said.

The panel will be renamed the Demolition Board. Its members will come from the city administration and Departments of Building, Law, Fire and Engineering. It will include a representative from the Lorain County General Health District and a citizen representative appointed by Mayor Chase Ritenauer.

The city will notify property owners of potential violations, which are based on the International Property Maintenance Code.

If owners do not correct the violations, city staff will obtain search warrants to inspect the properties and present their findings to Demolition Board members to decide the fate of the building.

The board could order demolition or for owners to correct the violations, according to the city policy.

The city of Lorain has a draft list with at least 112 houses on it, although Given said it is a complaint list, not a final list.

That is why the inspections are needed and expected to start next week, he said.

“At this point in time, I can’t tell you honestly that every building on that list will be subject to demolition,” Given said.

Lorain has some houses that are old and are not in affluent areas, he said.

That does not mean they should be allowed to fall into disrepair, because it does not cost a lot of money to pick up garbage or put on a coat of paint, Given said.

It appeared some of the houses under consideration will be around the city, with a number in Ward 2, represented by Councilman Dennis Flores, which is in central Lorain, and Ward 6, represented by Councilman Angel Arroyo Jr., which is in South Lorain.

In Council meetings, Flores and Arroyo have publicly stated addresses of run-down homes in those areas.