Written by 
The derelict buildings on Park Avenue put public safety at risk, harm nearby businesses, blight the northern entrance to downtown, and make it harder to lease the new office buildings at nearby Southport.
Renton’s 4-5-060 code is clear. If Renton’s building official determines that a building is an immediate danger to occupants or those nearby, the official should post it with a message that says “This Structure Is Unsafe and Its Occupancy Has Been Prohibited by the Code Official.” It is then unlawful for anyone to enter unless they are officially repairing it. This is commonly known as the city putting a “red tag” on a building. The building official should then order the work to be done to bring the building up to code. If the danger is imminent, the code official is allowed to make emergency repairs to prevent imminent danger. The cost of the emergency repairs will be temporarily covered by the jurisdiction, but billed to the owner of the building.
The buildings on Park Avenue reached an unsafe condition two years ago, with unabated fire damage, disabled fire protection that could cause a seven-story inferno, blocked fire exits, broken windows falling from 7 stories up, open elevator shafts, mold build-up from rain and fire hose water, biohazards from human occupancy without sanitation, and the attractive nuisance of being a dystopian former aerospace office that looks like it belongs in the game “Fallout.”
It took a year and a half, and much cajoling from residents, to finally get the city to follow the code-prescribed procedures to visibly “red-tag” the building. For months the city effectively just kept writing letters to the building owner threatening that an even more firm letter would be coming if they didn’t take action.
Recent Comments