The Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety on Tuesday voted to affirm a decision by code enforcement to take emergency action condemning and ordering a property on Park Avenue to be demolished.
The vote allows the city take legal action against the property owner, Christen Tyree, if the house at 2271 Park Ave. isn’t demolished within 30 days of the notice date of Aug. 1.
Columbus Code Enforcement Officer Fred Barnett said the property came to his attention after Columbus Animal Care Services was called to the home due to concerns from a neighbor about some dogs that had been living there, but were since taken away.
“They called me and, let’s put it this way, I had to wear a haz-mat suit to get into the house. It was that bad,” Barnett told board members.
The house had been occupied by a tenant, who had not actually lived there for some time, according to Barnett. The tenant was in the hospital for a couple of months and had since left to stay with his daughter due to health issues.
The daughter took the dogs from the property, but for a period of time they had been in the home alone with the daughter stopping by just once a day to feed them, according to code enforcement.
“So you can imagine what the inside looked like,” Barnett said.
The property owner is also required to have the place looked at by an electrical and plumbing inspector.
Code enforcement found the home to have the following multiple violations under the state’s unsafe building code, and the city’s municipal code for unsafe buildings, minimum housing standards and definitions of a public nuisance.
