A city board has declared Price Florist on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation and use.
Price Florist won’t be demolished yet.
On Thursday, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals declared the longtime business on Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation or use. It’s already been vacated, and the property owner is cleaning it up.
But the six board members at Thursday’s meeting stopped short of issuing a demolition order.
Instead, they gave property owner Patricia Warren of Crossville 30 days to present a repair plan or demolition order.
Warren said she wants to sell the property as soon as possible, and it’s listed with a real estate agent. There is some interest in a sale, possibly to demolish the existing building and replace it with a new business, Warren said.
She told board members she wasn’t aware of the poor property conditions. The business itself is owned by Linda Moore of Oak Ridge, and Warren said the tenants, who have been there four to five years, won’t return her phone calls or text messages. They were supposed to maintain the property and mow the yard, Warren said.
Board members and the city staff said they don’t want the building to remain in its current condition for long, especially since it’s now been declared unfit.
“It’s been there for a while, and it’s looked bad for a while,” Oak Ridge Community Development Director Kathryn Baldwin said.
“I don’t want to look at this building for the next year or two waiting for a buyer,” board member Joe Lee said.
The original complaint against Price Florist came from a resident concerned about the yard. Then, an employee complained to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which contacted the city.
The city required an “emergency vacate†on May 1. A notice posted on the building’s front door said the building is deemed unfit for human occupation or use.
The city staff said there are fire code violations at the building, a leaking roof, electrical hazards, plumbing issues, a toilet that doesn’t work, and broken concrete floors, among other things.
Note: This story was updated at 4:26 p.m.
Myra Mansfield says
I would like to know if this is an original Oak Ridge building. Does anyone know when it was built?
Jamie Olson says
Real Estate Assessment Data on the State of TN website lists it as built in 1955.
johnhuotari says
That fits with what I recall that the property owner told me, that the Price family started it in the 1950s, and the Warren family purchased it in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Patricia Warren has been an owner or co-owner of the property since then, although she sold the business itself four or five years ago.