The city of San Luis Obispo is preparing to deal with two potential sites of public nuisance left vacant for almost a decade.
On July 2, the SLO City Council will conduct a public hearing on whether two single family residences at the crossing of Casa Street and Murray Avenue disturb the peace for neighbors. City staff believes, based on water usage records, that the two dilapidated buildings have been empty since 2015. Over the years, overgrown vegetation, debris and trash, and unwanted furniture accumulated on the property. Residents also filed complaints about suspicious activity and trespassing by transient people.
“The lack of maintenance and control from the property owner has led to over 80 calls for service to the Police Department since 2018, as well as recent code enforcement action related to the state of the property,” the city staff report read.
It is unclear who owns the two buildings. Property tax records list “Ryan D” as the assessee of the parcel. SLO Community Development Deputy Director Michael Loew said he couldn’t reveal the name of the property owner because of the ongoing investigation in preparation for the public hearing.
These are the only properties the Building and Safety Division is currently working to fix code violations through the nuisance abatement process.
“The city of San Luis Obispo’s City Council does not regularly resolve code violations through the public nuisance process outlined in municipal code section 8.24. The city’s Code Enforcement Division responds to complaints and proactively enforces neighborhood preservation standards,” Loew said. “Staff strives to work with community members to achieve compliance voluntarily.”
The code enforcement division resolves roughly 200 code and 500 neighbor service cases a year.
Between January 2022 and June 2023, the division noted the declining state of the property in question. While the property owner worked to clean up the exterior of the property, according to the staff report, he said it was difficult for him to maintain it because he lived “out of the area.” City staff repeatedly communicated with the owner as it tracked the deteriorating property conditions.
By Nov. 11 last year, he racked up more than $42,000 in daily fines, and the city boarded up the two residences. Loew noticed imminent dangers by the end of November, like faulty stairs, missing door hardware, electrical hazards, and a collapsed ceiling. He authorized temporary safeguards such as the disconnection of electrical services and the physical boarding of all entry points to the buildings.
But the code violations remain unresolved. The exterior areas of the property are open to the public, and people still dump furniture on-site. The continued grievances compelled staff to recommend a public hearing before City Council. The council approved it unanimously as a consent agenda item on May 21.
If the city finds the property to be a public nuisance on July 2, the property owner must remedy the violations within 30 days. If the owner makes no fixes, the city will take over for abatement. The property owner will then bear the final costs of the city’s improvements.
“City staff will coordinate efforts to remediate all debris, overgrown vegetation, and potentially install fencing to prevent future trespassing,” the staff report said.
The city will place a lien—the claim against assets to be used as collateral to satisfy a debt—on the premises if he doesn’t reimburse the bill. Δ
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 9, 2024.
Found this funny: in July 2019 the owner of the property in question (205 Casa St) submitted an appeal to overturn an approval that his neighbor was granted to remodel their property (221 Casa St). Why would an out of area (arguably, I can’t find evidence that he lives outside of SLO county) owner of a long dilapidated structure care that his neighbor wants to remodel their property? The appeal was of course denied and the neighbor kept their approval.