Soldotna Considers Funding for Nuisance Property Demo

Author: KSRM News Desk |

The Soldotna City Council will consider the allocation of funding on Wednesday for the demolition of a “nuisance property” on Riverview Drive.

 

Last February the council voted to allow the city’s lawyer to seek litigation against the owner of the property considered dangerous, which is partially burned and open to the elements.

 

Soldotna’s Director of Economic Development & Planning Stephanie Queen…

 

Queen: “We have codes about public nuisance and they’re put in place because public nuisances can have a detrimental effect on the community at large. They can bring down property values, they can bring about illicit behavior, they can be an eyesore, or they can in some cases be an actual danger to physical health to the community. So in general, those are the laws that the dangerous building code and public nuisance code are trying to uphold.”

 

She says informal conversations with the homeowner began in 2014 when the city requested them to repair the structure, followed by formal notices of violation, and work to make the property less dangerous.

 

Now Soldotna’s Public Works Department is requesting a $20,000 appropriation in order award the duties to North Star Paving, who was low bidder in a request for quotes on the project. The job includes the “demolition of the house and its contents, including delivery to Central Peninsula Landfill.”

 

City Council members will consider the funding at Wednesday’s (January 11) regularly scheduled meeting that begins at 6:00 pm in the Soldotna Council Chambers.