The City Council convened to review administrative appellate hearings regarding dangerous buildings in Detroit. Property owners, consultants, and residents appeared to argue for the preservation of their properties or to request deferrals for demolition orders issued by the Building Safety & Engineering Department (BSEED). The Council deliberated on individual cases, weighing evidence of property conditions, owner intent, and feasibility of rescue against public safety concerns.
bseed.demo@detroitmi.gov to prove compliance or progress. BSEED was directed to provide more detailed property data (taxes, ownership history, time on list) for future meetings.Please call the roll. Yes, good afternoon. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero. Good afternoon. Present. Councilmember Scott Benson. Councilmember Mary Waters. Present. Council Chair, we have quorum. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Given a quorum, we'll go right into the hearings for today. We will turn it over to the administration first before we turn it over to LPD to share with the public a little bit more about what these hearings are and what they will entail. I will turn it over to you, Mr. Washington, for the administration. Yes, good afternoon again, Madam Chair and Committee. For owners of property here today, if City Council orders your building, your building to be demolished. You have the opportunity to go to the Building Safety Environmental Engineering Department located in room 418 and request a deferral of the demolition order. This means that you must do the following. Provide proof of ownership or interest in the property. Pay all required inspection fees, secure all openings on your building from trespass and the elements and remove all exterior debris, ban in vehicles, overgrowth, etc. Pay or make arrangements regarding any delinquent city taxes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Washington. LPD. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to add briefly to the important information just provided by the administration's representative about the nature and consequences of these hearings. These are legally required administrative appellate hearings from previous hearings held by representatives of the Department of B seed. And uh it's required to hold these hearings under state law in order to demolish dangerous buildings in the city. So this is the opportunity for the committee to either give the thumbs up or the thumbs down to the to the department's recommendations and for the property owners to argue that if if they choose to do so that the property should not be demolished. In order to provide due process and assist the committee in its deliberations, representatives of the department are here with the files so that photos and the facts can be known. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now turn it over to those representatives from BC to introduce themselves. BC. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Deli Portel. I'm the assistant team at the uh property maintenance uh B seed. Good afternoon. Thank you both for joining us. As has been mentioned, these are hearings to either support residents that want to keep their homes or support them with the demolition if they so choose so. We are here with about 70 homes on our list today. I try my very best to respect people's time and to go through these as uh efficiently as possible. I ask that we try to keep each hearing to about five minutes each. The questions are going to all be relatively the same. We will ask you for the address that you are here to discuss. We will ask whether or not you want to keep your property or if you're okay with demolition, and we will ask you any other questions that we seem necessary as we go through this process. We'll go one by one with the folks that we have here in person first. If you are online and you would like to have a hearing, please raise your hands now through the Zoom feature or if you are calling in. I forget what do we press Ms.