City Must Take Action
56 S. Market St, photo by Ned Bond
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the contributors to Extra Voices on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Frederick Extra.
CORRECTION FROM THE AUTHOR: Alderman O'Connor is NOT currently the aldermanic liaison to the Historic Preservation Commission. He was liaison until 2014. Alderman Donna Kuzemchak is the current liaison.
I would like to address Alderman Michael O'Connor's serious and very dangerous misconceptions regarding the structural engineering reports recently obtained by the City on 56 S. Market St. [Extra Talk with Katherine Heerbrandt, Dec. 1, 2016]
Both reports indicate the building is unstable and in danger of collapse. That's what unstable buildings do and often without warning. The end result is usually serious property damage and unfortunately death and major injuries suffered as a result! The reports are not mutually exclusive, meaning you can’t cherry pick the details to support the argument that the building isn't an immediate danger to the public.
They are all inclusive, meaning that all of the concerns in both reports support each other and they quite clearly convey a major potential for collapse. Neither report recommends, or even suggests that a renovation of the building is advisable and one cautions against restoration, citing major safety issues. The second report states that it is imperative that the walls be shored up without delay.
If Mr. O'Connor read the report thoroughly the emphasis on “imperative' and 'without delay” is with regard to preventing an uncontrolled movement of the building. This process would still be needed to begin a demolition and any further delay could prove to be disastrous and costly. His suggestion that we need yet another contractor estimate to establish the cost, feasibility and safety of a preservation effort shows that Mr. O'Connor simply doesn't get it and has little regard for the safety of the pedestrians, motorist and neighbors adjacent to the dangerous building.
His, and other city officials’ willingness to ignore the high potential for collapse, injury, death and significant property damage is appalling at this point. Our Mayor Randy McClement has decided to push the issue through the lengthy Historic Preservation Commission process where the HPC
commission members seem oblivious to matters of immediate public safety, and even less of a concern for economic vitality of the community. City staff have already recommended demolition, and as such, our code allows us to bypass HPC, yet we continue with this ridiculous game of 'Mother May I' with the Kangaroo Court of HPC!!!
At an absolute minimum the front of the building should be immediately buttressed so that any collapse will not result in debris on Market Street. Additional buttressing is needed to ensure NO collapse is possible on Capa Imports, and barriers should be erected to prevent any access by anyone within an acceptable safety zone behind the building. This could be done in less than a week.
If the property owner fails to do it, then the City should take immediate action to secure the entire site and send the bill to the property owner. HPC should be completely bypassed for this effort as its prolonged meddling would only result in escalating the danger to anyone or anything in the area.
If Mr. O'Connor had any sense he would have demanded immediate action to ensure the safety of the public once the building inspections revealed a high potential for collapse! Yet, he, like the rest of City Hall and the oblivious HPC members seem to be captivated by the Coca Cola sign.
In a recent HPC meeting to determine the fate of the dilapidated and very dangerous building, the HPC commission members acted like a band of unruly and spoiled children, publicly and unprofessionally chastising and belittling the current property owner for wanting to demolish the building after several independent structural engineering reports revealed the building was unstable and in danger of collapse.
The proceedings seemed more like an episode of the famed Monty Python's 'Room For an Argument' skit. Commission members faulted the property owner for failing to keep the building in repair and letting it sit without any renovation! Perhaps it might be useful to enlighten the myopic commission members with the whole story behind the property. Some of which includes the total failure of HPC to halt the 'demolition by neglect' over the last 40 years.
In 1972, Hurricane Agnes and the great Frederick flood of 1976 significantly damaged the property and for 35 plus years the previous property owner was given a free pass on ANY code enforcement or HPC action because of their standing and influence in the community. Major demolition and unapproved, shoddy renovations were attempted, but the building continued to spiral into disrepair with NO corrective action taken by the City.
Yes, that includes all previous administrations. The current administration continued that backward mindset by completely ignoring the ongoing deterioration of the property. This administration was fully aware of the state of the building as far back as 2010 when pictures from Code Enforcements own files show the dilapidated interior of the building. But (this) administration tasked with addressing blight within the City continued to ignore the problem (for 7+ years), failing to issue any code violations and failing to force the previous owners to address the dangerous state of the building.
By failing to issue and hold open major code violations, the City failed to document and ensure the new property owners were aware of, and agreed to, accept the responsibility of addressing the outstanding violations as required by our city code when they purchased the property.
The current property owners bought the property, as is, and other than some agreement to abide by the HPC rules for maintenance, repair and renovation, were under NO obligation to do anything. Had the City required structural inspections by the previous owner, OR by the current owner at the time of purchase, given the obvious history and state of the building, everyone would have been well aware of the dangerous condition years ago. It's sort of a 'bait and switch' by the City. See if we can get some other sucker to play tag with HPC.
Land Management Code (LMC) section 423 encourages, if not obligates, HPC commission members to address demolition by neglect with Code Enforcement. It would appear that since 2010, before the current owners purchased the property, there were NO open code violations or orders to address ANY major issues with the structure. NO HPC commission members ever took any independent action to halt the decline of the building, NONE!
But, the HPC spared no expense in time and effort to harangue businesses for having lighted signs or TV advertising in their windows. Code Enforcement, Department of Public Works (tasked with addressing blighted and dangerous properties), the Mayor's office, and even the Aldermen (Mr. O'Connor) consistently failed to address the problems with this property. The previous manager of code was quoted by the daily paper that “he didn't want to burden the developer.” The entirety of City Hall repeatedly ignored calls for action on this building (and others.)
Since the current owner has only had the property for six of the 40 plus years it has been spiraling into oblivion, he was never required by the City to address any of the issues in or on the building, HPC has been a major contributor to the ongoing deterioration of the property by refusing to take minimal steps and filing complaints, or at a minimum, hold discussions with other City departments to address the demolition by neglect seen with many buildings citywide. Action that may have minimized or even halted the long term damage with this building and many others.
The entire city of Frederick has destroyed this property through neglect of its own. For any HPC commission member to suggest that this problem is even remotely the current property owner’s problem shows they have little regard for true historic preservation, oblivious to their own contribution to the destruction of the property and why it's in the state it's in, no sense of public safety, and even less for the economic vitality of the community.
Keep in mind that Mr. O'Connor, as the liaison to HPC, seems to have done a miserable job and perhaps he should shoulder some of the responsibility for the ineptitude and indifference displayed by many of the commission members resulting in the dangerous state of this building.
It is interesting to note that it was a citizen that filed the code complaints after Code Enforcement and DPW refused to address problems with the building. It was a citizen that forced the City to demand a structural engineering report, it was a citizen that demanded that the building be demolished because it presents a clear and overwhelming danger to the public. Only one alderman finally broke free of the disinterested pack and helped push the concerns of that citizen through perpetual logjam of City Hall disinterest. City Hall was like an ostrich with its head in the sand (again).
The property owner wants to demolish the structure but the City refuses to let him. Who do you think will bear the brunt of responsibility if the building collapses and kills someone? When the lawsuits hit the courts both the property owner and City will be held accountable but it's the City's inaction, indifference and ineptitude for 40+ years that will force the bulk of the responsibility to the tax payer!
HPC has denied demolition again and now the cat fight has been pushed to January. Even if a replacement plan, demanded by the commission, is presented, what happens if the anally retentive commission members are not happy with it? Everything gets delayed yet again.
The commission has the power to delay this for years while the danger grows day by day. Thank You Mr. O'Connor for your due diligence and concern for the citizens you are paid to Serve. Think about that when you vote for McClement or O'Connor in the next election. Both have (and continue to) put the citizens and taxpayers of Frederick on very thin ice and quite possibly under 100 tons of bricks!
Our enlightened City Civil Engineer made an insane comment suggesting that the building may stand for another 20 years or could come down in the next few days. And if it comes down in the next few days?
