The West Hollywood City Council voted 5-0 Monday night to approve a zone text amendment enabling the issuance of demolition permits for vacant properties that pose public safety risks.

The amendment will modify Section 19.50.020 (Demolition Permits – Applicability) of Title 19 of the West Hollywood Municipal Code and gives a two-year sunset provision, to allow the issuance of demolition permits for any unsafe properties. This amendment applies to residential and commercial properties whether or not they have existing entitlements.

On December 2, 2019, the city council reviewed and approved Ordinance No. 19-1090, which established new public nuisance standards that address property maintenance and vacant property issues by creating new Chapters 9.60 (Public Nuisances), 9.64 (Vacant Properties), and 9.66 (Recording Notice of Violation) in new Article 5 (Neighborhood Preservation) in Title 9 (Public Peace and Safety) of the West Hollywood Municipal Code.

The two-year sunset date on the ordinance will allow staff and the city council to assess if there are unanticipated impacts from the new policy and thus decide whether to make this a permanent code change.

As part of the vacant property standards, a “Vacant Property Registration Program” was created, requiring all vacant properties in the city to be registered and inspected by Code Enforcement Officers.

“Vacant property” is defined in the West Hollywood Municipal Code as any property that is substantially vacant, unoccupied, or abandoned for more than forty-five days.

Upon completion of an inspection, a vacant property is assigned one of four classifications (“Stable”, “At-Risk”, “Problematic”, and “Failed”) depending on the overall condition of the property.

• “Stable” properties are defined as “those that are well maintained, require few if any repairs, and can easily be reoccupied.”
• “At-Risk” properties are classified as “Properties that are fairly well maintained but have repairs that are needed (e.g. peeling paint, dead vegetation, graffiti, broken fence, etc.)
• “Problematic” properties are defined as “those that are not maintained by the owners. The structures are not determined to be unsafe but require significant repairs and/or there is evidence of intrusion into the property.”
• “Failed” properties are those that are “completely unmaintained and pose a significant threat to the broader community. Structures are unsafe to enter or occupy and there is evidence of intrusion into the property.”

There are currently 56 vacant properties in West Hollywood. 42 of those are listed as stable, five are deemed at risk, and nine are considered problematic and failed depending on the overall condition of the property.

Councilmember Lauren Meister initially had concerns regarding the amendment “becoming the norm rather than the occasion.”

“My only concern is if we have 42 stable, five at risk, and nine problematic, are the ‘at risk’ the ones that are going into this category, or is it problematic or is it failed? And what happens if the stable ones start to move?” she asked.  “Is there a way we can say as of today if you’re listed on the ‘stable’ category that you don’t qualify for this because you’ve let the property go rather than something happening that created the situation where they were already problematic?”

Tahirah Farris, Senior Planner at the Community Development Department said there are a number of criteria that city staff would use to determine if the property does rise to the level that would necessitate authorizing the demolition.

“So in theory, a property could be in any one of those categories but probably the likelihood that it’s in the failed category or problematic is more likely because we also have to determine that the property owner has not made any effort to secure the property or address any concerns by the city,” said Farris. “We would see this as a disincentive for a property owner to just sit and do nothing because there are fines that can be imposed on the property – the demolition would be at the expense of the property owner – so it would be in their best interest to be in compliance with city regulations.”

According to the staff report, the intent is for the list to include properties for which there have been multiple calls to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, West Hollywood Fire Stations, and/or City Code Enforcement, ongoing and confirmed complaints from neighbors about safety and security of the property, and ongoing and confirmed reports of public safety issues such as trespassing, fires, vandalism.

“Maintaining the City’s housing stock remains one of the city’s top priorities,” the report states. “This new procedure shall be used on rare occasions and as a last resort when other remedies for vacant properties have been exhausted. This new mechanism will not apply to properties that are not genuinely hazardous.”

The photo is a screen capture from the meeting.