BLUEFIELD, Va. – Leaders in Bluefield, Virginia say they’re ready to begin tearing down dilapidated homes in an effort to clean up the town’s appearance.
The first demolition is expected to happen next week at a home on Virginia Avenue.
“We have identified multiple other houses around town as being a blight but these specific 10 houses are the ones in particular that are unsafe,” said Nathaniel Mitchem, zoning administrator for the Town of Bluefield.
Mitchem says the town is trying to take a different approach to the process in an effort to help with the nation wide housing shortage.
Instead of going straight into demo, he says the town has reached out to the home owners to try and get movement on possible renovations but he says eight of the homeowners are absent.
“Two of the houses we actually got responses back. One of them, they’re going to try and demolish it themselves. The other one, she’s been working on it. Demolishing a house is a big deal,” said Mitchem
“We may have actually gotten some movement on that. To renovate rather than tear it down so that’s exactly what we want.”
Mitchem says there’s around 50 houses that need demolished or renovated. This year he says the town has budgeted more than $100,000 to have 10 torn down.
He says the town is hoping to build on this initiative in years to come.
“This is just the beginning of the process and we really want to come back in after we get this done and try to figure out what we can do to put something back there. Whether it be another house, I think a couple of them would be good locations for a park,” said Mitchem.
Right now demos are planned for houses on Virginia Avenue, Grove Street and Greaver Avenue among others.
Mitchem says if houses are demolished using town funds then a lien would be placed against the property for the amount paid to demolish the structure.
Mitchem says he believes state code would allow for the town to sell the properties in a tax sale if the lien amount and property taxes become delinquent after six months.
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