Code enforcement leads to quick action

To address the perils of the growing numbers of abandoned properties, Indianapolis has started multiple programs, including one that demolishes abandoned structures quickly after a fire occurs. An Indiana statute for abandoned buildings provides for an emergency demolition order if “the existence of unsafe premises presents […] an immediate danger to the community sufficient to warrant emergency action.”

The fire department notifies the city’s Department of Code Enforcement of fires in abandoned buildings, and if a city structural engineer finds during their inspections that a building is unsafe, it is torn down within three hours post-fire, Nicoson says. “We’ve been doing this a year and a half, and have done 106 [residential] demolitions and 16 businesses,” he says. “It’s just an absolute success.”

The city also is demolishing vacant buildings that have not been on fire. Last year, it enacted the Abandoned Homes Initiative 2011-2012 as part of the Rebuild Indy Initiative, which was funded by $400 million raised through the city’s sale of water and wastewater utilities to a public trust, the Citizens Gas Energy Group. Most of the money is being used to improve roads, sidewalks, bridges, and curbs, but about $15 million was set aside to remove unsafe and abandoned buildings, Walton says.

Last year, Indianapolis inspectors approved the demolition of 675 structures. The goal for 2012 is to demolish 2,000, Walton says.

Handling the problem

Declaring a structure unsafe and abandoned is not easy. The city cannot be the judge, the prosecution and the defense, Walton says, so it joins with the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPH), which can condemn a property.

MCPH’s Unsafe Building Program Manager Tim McMillan says some of the city’s residents have moved out and left buildings to deteriorate. The properties may go through a couple of tax sales and different owners, but no one invests the money to repair and make them viable, McMillan says.

“Bad things happen in vacant, unattended buildings,” he says. “We’ve had people who stay there in the winter and start fires and catch the buildings on fire. Sometimes those fires will grow and set the next building on fire.”

McMillan’s team tries to keep the buildings safe by enforcing minimum maintenance or vacant building standards. After an inspection has been done and repair orders or penalty processes enacted, a hearing officer imposes several penalties — up to $7,500 per structure — on the property if the owner has a willful failure to comply with the order.

If there are at least two major failures to comply, a city inspector will write a demolition order, followed by a hearing 30 days later, McMillan says. If the judge rules against the owner, he or she has 30 days to deconstruct the building, and if they do not, Walton’s office takes over.

With the Rebuild Indy Project funds, the city has shortened the time between when someone calls to report the property to its demolition from an average of 225 days to between 120 and 150 days.

All demolition contractors are local, so the program also helps stimulate the local economy and create jobs, Walton says. The average cost to demolish a building is about $6,500.