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More structures were demolished in Youngstown this year than any other year so for this decade
YOUNGSTOWN
In 2016, 571 properties, almost all of them residential structures, were demolished – more than in any other year so far this decade.
And city officials say 2017 could top that number.
The city spent $1.1 million to buy equipment the street department is using to demolish empty structures. That equipment arrived in March.
Meanwhile, the monthly sanitation fee for the city’s 22,000 residential garbage customers increased incrementally from $14.75 on Nov. 1, 2015, to $24.75 on July 1, 2016. The increase will generate about $2.5 million for demolition expenses annually when it’s fully implemented.
With 2017 being the first full year with the increase, “we expect to see more demolitions,” said Abigail Beniston, the city’s superintendent of code enforcement and blight remediation. “There will be more contracts and more commercial demos and will increase the number of street-department demolitions because we’ll have a full year of funding.”
Of the 571 demolitions this year, 306 were done by the street department, Beniston said.
Among the rest, 110 were handled by the Mahoning County Land Bank using federal funds, 84 were taken down by contractors hired and paid by the city, and 71 were demolished by private-property owners who paid themselves to take them down, she said.
In comparison, 424 properties were demolished in 2015 with 204 done by the street department, 89 by the land bank, 36 by city-hired contractors and 95 by private-property owners, Beniston said.
The total number of demolitions by year in Youngstown were 524 in 2010, 306 in 2011, 424 in 2012, 530 in 2013 and 274 in 2014.
Even with the increase in demolitions, there are about 3,500 vacant structures in the city with about 3,000 in need of being taken down, Beniston said.
“Demolitions are still the No. 1 quality-of-life issue we have in the city,” said Mayor John A. McNally. “It’s the question I get asked the most: ‘Mayor, can you get rid of this house? I’ve been calling for 10 years or I’ve been calling for 20 years.’ It continues to be a focus. I want to devote more resources to demolition next year. We have more equipment in place, and I want to support that with contracted demolition. We’re going to make more money available for demolition in 2017.”
Years ago, the city used “scattershot” demolition, taking down one house – maybe two – in deplorable conditions in a neighborhood, Beniston said.
“If we go into a neighborhood now, we clean everything out,” she said. “Taking down one property calms the complaints, but it doesn’t deal with the issue we’re facing. Now we have better plans in neighborhoods. It’s not just one or two. It’s all of the houses in a neighborhood. We look at eight to 10 houses in a three- to four-street cluster. It’s been working. With 3,000 houses that need to come down, we have a long way to go, but we’re getting to them.”
Another change expected in 2017 is what’s done with a property after a structure is demolished, Beniston said.
Now, the land is graded, she said. The plan is to change to top soil and grass, preferably the low-growing kind, with some properties having other greenery, Beniston said.
There will be a continued focus on major corridors in the city, McNally said, including commercial structures on Belmont, South and Wick avenues and McGuffey Road.
“I also want to focus on more demolitions on the South Side between Market Street and Glenwood Avenue,” he said.