BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners voted to use the city’s Code Enforcement department process rather than go through FEMA to remove buildings condemned after Hurricanes Helene and Milton if property owners fail to remove them.
“We have approximately 16 properties, these are the ones that are down and compromised,” Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby told commissioners on Feb. 20. “We already sent out letters and asked people to respond back within 45 days with whatever their intent is. As of today we have received seven responses back, that they’re going to request to move forward to remove those properties.”
Cosby said if property owners don’t remove the buildings, the city will have to remove them using one of two options.
“The first is we could do it through Code Enforcement where we go after the property owner and cite them through code once they hit the number of days the limit is for the code,” Cosby said. “It’s brought before a special master, the special master makes a ruling and then we take them to court, obviously tracking the time, then we put a lien on the property to get reimbursed. Then we would go in and have the court order them to take the property down.”
The second option involves FEMA.
“We can go through FEMA and get the necessary paperwork in to them and then we have a right to enter, we could go in and just take it,” Cosby said. “The issue with doing it through FEMA is then the city is going to be responsible for 12.5% of that cost.”
He said the average cost for removal is between $25,000 and $30,000.
“So when we get to this point if we have to, which route do you want to go?” Cosby asked commissioners. “Do you want to continue to try to force the property owner to take care of their own property or do you want to expend city tax dollars to force them to do it?
“I think we should go with the code route, just the normal legal process we would follow. I think people would respond to that, eventually they would take care of it,” Commissioner Deborah Scaccianoce said.
Commissioner Ralph Cole asked if FEMA would help homeowners with the cost of removing their house.
“No. FEMA will give them a grant of $30,000 to bring it up to code,” Cosby said. “I don’t know what it costs to put a house up on stilts, but I would say $30,000 isn’t going to be a lot of money.”
Commissioner Scott Bear noted that by going through Code Enforcement, the city retains the ability to recover costs.
