City to start discussions in the fall
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
As the City of Burlington regains control of a blighted property on Pine Street from Racine County, the next step for the Common Council is to decide what its best use will be, according to City Administrator Carina Walters.
The dilapidated property at 617 N. Pine St., which includes several apartments, was transferred to Racine County after the property owner became delinquent on property taxes.
Since 2011, including interest, the back taxes grew to $58,768.
The Common Council, faced with the decision at a meeting on Aug. 7, voted, 6-1, to acquire the property in exchange for $6,149 in special assessment costs.
The special assessment costs cover expenses related to snow removal and other minor property maintenance.
With the property in the city’s hands, according to Walters, the council faces four options.
“The next step for the Common Council is they determine what they are going to do with the property,” said Walters, adding the council will start discussing the matter during budget workshops conducted in the fall.
The city’s options are to keep the building, which was deemed an eyesore to some residents, redevelop the property themselves, demolish the building and sell the property to another developer or the city can decide to retain the property for a different use, Walters said.
Keeping the building
If the city decides to keep the building, they are left with a unsalvageable structure, City Building Inspector Gregory Guidry reports.
“Now, part of the building is fixable, but when we look at the whole building, it is way beyond repair,” Guidry said. “I have gone in there maybe three times and it just kept getting worse and worse.”
According to city records, the building’s electric and water supply was shut off in 2014, when Guidry’s predecessor declared it “uninhabitable.”
“An order for Judgment with Racine County was granted in April 2018,” Director of Administrative Services Megan Watkins wrote in an email.
City records, however, do not show when the tenants of the three apartment units vacated the building. Weather-beaten paper notices advising tenants to vacate the premises, dated April of this year remain, posted on the doors of the building.
To read the full story — including more on the city’s other options — see the Aug. 23 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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