Concerned that some Minneapolis neighborhoods are on the verge of becoming so scarred by boarded and abandoned houses that they may not bounce back, Hennepin County commissioners voted Tuesday to allocate as much as $1.25 million to the city to speed demolition of at least 50 houses.
Hennepin County to speed house demolitions
Commissioners were reacting to the large number of boarded-up and burned houses in north Minneapolis that have been abandoned or foreclosed on.
By MARY JANE SMETANKA and STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune staff writers
June 18, 2008 at 1:19AM
"Homes that are charred, that have no windows, are bad things waiting to happen," said Commissioner Mike Opat, who authored the measure. "Eventually we can get lots cleared and houses built. ... Time is of the essence."
Part of Opat's district lies in north Minneapolis, where 544 of the 925 boarded and vacant houses in the city are located. Commissioners cited the effect on streets such as the 2900 block of Dupont Avenue N., where several houses were burned and boarded up after they were foreclosed on or abandoned. They said they worried that other residents will flee those streets and that the blight could spread to suburbs.
"Neighbors are making decisions about moving now," said Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. "That's why this needs to be done now. ... We've made good progress in these neighborhoods, and now that is all being reversed."
County officials will meet with their Minneapolis counterparts to negotiate an agreement that should allow the city to roughly double the number of houses it can demolish this year after they're declared nuisances. The county measure targets properties where removal will improve safety and livability. At least 50 houses are to be demolished by the end of the year, with sites cleared and improved by next June.
The measure passed 6 to 1, with Linda Koblick voting no. Koblick, whose district covers the western suburbs, argued that the plan should have been reviewed by board committees and faced public feedback before a vote. Taxes paid by people all over the county shouldn't be earmarked just for the city when there may be suburban properties that need similar attention, she said.
Other commissioners were unmoved by her arguments, saying the magnitude of Minneapolis' problem merits action.
Most of the Minneapolis properties that are boarded and vacant will not be demolished but will be rehabbed, said Henry Reimer, the city's inspection services director.
One that won't is 2914 Dupont Av. N., the site of a news conference about the county demolition money. The house burned but wasn't damaged structurally, which meant the city could not pull it down immediately under its emergency powers.
But the property was damaged enough that it's not a rehab candidate. Getting it demolished requires a long process under a city ordinance designed to protect the owner's property rights while giving the city the power to remove nuisance property. Reimer said the house is likely to be demolished by summer's end.
The intersection where it lies connects four blocks that had averaged six foreclosures per block in a two-year period through last March.
The city now finances its property demolitions through a new revolving fund that also pays for boarded-building enforcement staff and other nuisance abatements, such as cutting of tall grass.
The City Council seeded the fund with $500,000, but it is designed to be self-sustaining through the $6,000 annual fee the city imposed on many vacant and boarded buildings, plus assessments against a property to retrieve demolition and other nuisance abatement costs. The city spends an average of $17,500 to demolish a house and restore the lot, but typically collects only 70 percent of demolition costs through assessment because it sometimes waives assessments. The county measure specifies that $17,500 be assessed on each razed property, repayable to the county.
The county plan is funded with $500,000 from its environmental response fund for environmental assessment and cleanup, $500,000 from the county's contingency fund for demolition work, and $250,000 from the solid-waste enterprise fund for transport and disposal of demolition waste.
In other action, the board voted to set up a Planetarium Work Group to study the feasibility of having a planetarium in the county. In 2005, the state provided a $22 million grant for a planetarium at the new Minneapolis Central Library. Minneapolis libraries merged with Hennepin County Libraries this year. The new group will study the issue and report to the board by August.
Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380 Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438
