Ravenna-Bryant Community Association

1. The City Attorney’s Office is in the process of executing the judgment, after all appeals have been exhausted, to collect the full amount of fines and penalties owed to the City by the property owners for previous code violation citations.  A final resolution is expected  to be announced once this process is completed.
2. The City’s Department of Planning and Development(DPD), through their Code Compliance Division, has been taking code enforcement action on the Sisley properties.  For the three vacant houses on 65^th, DPD’s end goal is either voluntary demolition by the owners or obtaining a court order to allow the City to go onto the properties and demolish.  To obtain the court order is a rather long and technical process as there is an administrative process that must occur first.  DPD has taken the first steps of doing the calculations and preparing the documentation and other things needed in order to issue a Director’s Complaint and schedule a hearing. At the hearing, DPD must establish that the cost of repairing these buildings would exceed 50% of the cost of replacing them (this is the code standard allowing DPD to order demolition).  Then, if DPD prevails at the hearing, an administrative order is issued requiring the owner to demolish or repair the buildings as unfit for human habitation.  If demolition (or repair) is not done voluntarily, DPD must go to court to get an abatement order allowing the City to enter onto the property to tear them down.  Unfortunately, there are several points between the initial hearing and the ultimate goal of demolition at which the property owners can contest and slow things down, both at the administrative level and in court.

As soon as we hear any news, you’ll be the first to know.