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The city of Fairborn continues to invest money to stabilize neighborhoods by tearing down blighted structures that are unsafe to the public and eyesores for the surrounding residents.
City officials plan to increase the 2016 budget by $250,000 to fund the demolition of blighted structures and acquisition of those properties, if necessary, by the community development department.
The money will come from the general fund to create the redevelopment fund, said Randy Groves, the city’s finance director. Fairborn City Council is scheduled to vote on the 2016 budget Monday night.
It costs approximately $7,000 on average to demolish a house, according to Mike Gebhart, Fairborn’s community development director.
Fairborn Mayor Dan Kirkpatrick said a specific area is not being targeted, but it’s a community-wide effort.
“We’re trying to make Fairborn as attractive as possible,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s not just an aesthetic issue. It’s a safety issue. As long as people are not taking care of houses that have been abandoned, we feel like it’s a responsibility of ours to do the proper thing with them.”
Fairborn currently is in the process of demolishing six residential houses. The project cost out of the general fund is a little more than $52,000, and work is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 18, Gebhart said.
Two of the homes — 1646 Wilbur Ave. and 1432 Salem Ave. — already have been torn down. The property owners will be billed for the work, or the cost will be assessed.
Once completed, it will raise the total number of homes demolished in the city to nearly 30, going back to 2013. Fairborn received a $150,000 Moving Ohio Forward grant in 2013 to fund the demolition homes in 2013 and the first half of 2014.
The next round of structures to be demolished should be identified by the end of January, Gebhart said. Even vacant commercial properties are candidates for the program, he said.
“Those properties are blighting on the neighborhood,” Gebhart said. “They are structurally unsound and unsanitary because they haven’t been occupied in some time. They’re a total nuisance and eyesore on each of the neighborhoods they are located in.”
Groves said the $250,000 will be seed money for the redevelopment fund to acquire and remove properties, as well as to use those dollars for grant matches.
The new fund will then be kept alive by grants and any income generated from the program, such as the sale of property or property taxes collected.
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