Gamble House Saga Continues

The issue began with an anonymous e-mail sent to the city of Cincinnati criticizing the property's condition, noting a crumbling walkway and peeling paint. City inspectors found code violations at the Westwood home of the world-renowned industrialist, philanthropist and inventor of Ivory Soap. Soon, the owner, Greenacres Foundation, applied for a demolition permit. The request was denied. That denial has generated nearly a year's worth of hearings, meetings, protests, City Council sessions, federal and state court proceedings, purchase offers made and bids rejected.  In September, U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott issued a court order stopping the removal of "wood moldings, stained-glass windows and doors" from the house. In December, she ordered Greenacres to produce an inventory of those removed items. Activists are claiming the foundation has taken part in "demolition by neglect" when an owner, with malicious intent, lets a building deteriorate until it becomes a structural hazard and then turns around and asserts the building's advanced state of deterioration as a reason to justify its demolition.

To me the problem is the city is not enforcing the ordinances in the early stages. They are not doing emergency board ups and stabilization that they could under the law then seek liens against the property. They are not taking owners to court. They are not taking receivership options, but instead are "fast tracking" property to demo that, in many cases, have no structural issues. Those properties should, be stabilized and repaired and billed to the owner. If the owner refuses to pay the city gets claim and they could resell it to a responsible property owner. Many times people buy these properties unaware that orders are out there because the city doesn't lien for Vacant Building Maintenance Licences or board ups and then find they have property they can't even get a loan on to make repairs. Tearing down the buildings at taxpayer expense only hurts the buildings, the neighborhoods and the taxpayer. It does nothing to the bad owner who walks away from it. The city rarely, if ever, goes after the owner to recover demo costs. There needs to be a more coherent plan that prevents a situation like this from happening before it gets to this point.