City debates demolishing five historic homes
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
“Demolition is never a fast process in my experience.”
But it is a strong possible route for five Key West houses in the historic district that the city’s chief building official, Ron Wampler, has declared uninhabitable and unsafe.
Wampler has notified the owners of 1019 Elgin Lane, 904 and 914 Emma St., 719 Whitehead St. and 221 Petronia St. that their residential properties are unfit for habitation. Most of the properties are empty; however, the Petronia house has tenants living on the first floor. The second floor was severely damaged in a fire, causing the city’s fire chief to call the building department with safety concerns.
“The structures at the listed addresses are not habitable and are becoming unstable due to age and neglect. Some have openings in the roof and walls allowing precipitation to enter and accelerate the disintegration process,” Wampler said in a letter to the Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC).
While Wampler has the final say on whether the buildings are torn down – his chief concern is public safety – some city officials are hoping that demolition can be avoided. City Commissioner Clayton Lopez said last week he wanted to postpone any final decision on demolition until all avenues of structural recovery had been exhausted. In addition to the historical loss of the homes, Lopez is concerned about the owners losing their property.
“I understand the city doesn’t want to be put in a liability situation,” he said. “But there are families involved. There may be mitigating issues in some of these cases.”
HARC members also weighed in during their May 27 meeting. Wampler appeared before the commission as a courtesy, laying out his case for declaring the five structures unsafe, the first step in the city demolition process. HARC Chairman Michael Miller emphasized that every effort should be made to save historic houses and said he had spoken to a couple who wanted to purchase one of the homes on the list and turn it into two affordable housing units. And some of the other properties may also be able to be saved, he said.
“The [1019] Elgin Lane house, in particular, could be quite a nice house if the people know how much money it will take to make it quite a nice house,” he said.
Wampler was sympathetic to Miller’s concerns.
“I have no intention at the moment for demolition of any of these five buildings. And there is no immediate process that’s going to cause that,” he said, adding that his next step after notification is to do a title search to ensure the legal owners are contacted. “Then I would have to make a decision based on the outcome of those meetings as to how to proceed at that point.”
Money is often the problem with restoring historic houses, with projects likely to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to make the structure habitable as well as meet city codes in historic districts. Wampler said, while he has “several hats to wear,” he is also willing to help either current or new owners take steps to stabilize the properties.
“I’m completely open to meetings with the owners and what they wish to do to preserve them or prolong them or board them up or whatever to stabilize them,” he said. “I’d like to see someone step forward and save all of these structures, to tell you the truth. That’s why we’re starting the notification process.”
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