After calling for changes in how the City of Wilmington deals with neglected, dilapidated houses in its limits, the city council is set to workshop for solutions.
That’s expected at a City Hall review session Monday morning between council members and staff, said the city’s communications office.
There could be at least 20 Wilmington houses in bad enough shape to be demolished soon per abandonment, City Manager Sterling Cheatham said in May. Council members including Laura Padgett and Kevin O’Grady have said these run-down structures are bringing surrounding communities down in spirit; code enforcement officers say they’re often stations of illegal activity and squatting.
Other concerns, from a policy perspective, include how long the city should give the properties’ owners to address the situation before moving ahead on demolition.
At its May 21 meeting, council gave code enforcement the go ahead to mark three early-20th-century properties for demolition, considering the responsible parties weren’t interested in rejuvenating them or tearing them down themselves.
The cost to rehabilitate the properties would far exceed their tax values.
That meant it became the city’s task to demolish. In such cases, the city places liens on the properties.
Council marked yet another for demolition last month, this one a 111-year-old house on Nun Street (though in this case, unlike the previous three, the owner was paid up on tax bills.)
In many cases, the city steps in after the owner of a house dies and heirs aren’t around or interested to assume responsibility for upkeep, renovations or selling the property as-is.
Council members say they want to see these properties–whether through renovation or demolition and rebuilding–put back to good use for the benefit of their surroundings, and for the city’s property tax rolls.
“Your emphasis in your discussion … has been on [acting in the] preservation of neighborhoods,” Cheatham told council in May, “so that means we need to be more aggressive on these properties.”
According to the city’s communications office, discussion will come up Monday after council’s usual agenda briefing, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Lord Spencer Compton Conference Room on the first floor of Wilmington City Hall, 102 N. Third St.
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