A city board has declared Price Florist on Oak Ridge Turnpike a nuisance and unfit for human occupation and use, and members have given the property owner another 30 days to develop a repair plan, get a demolition permit, or reach an agreement to sell it.
The owner of the Price Florist property on Oak Ridge Turnpike has already been given two 30-day extensions to make repairs, demolish the building, or sell it.
On Thursday, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals gave property owner Patricia Warren of Crossville one last extension.
“There’s no more 30 days,” board member Joe Lee said. “We’ve burned them up.”
Warren said she has been cleaning up the property, and the only remaining issues are the roof and siding.
“Structurally, the building is fine,” Warren said.
She has three potential buyers, including an office tenant and a food chain that would demolish the building. A third possible purchaser would relocate an existing Oak Ridge business. The property could sell as early as this weekend, Warren said.
The Price family started Price Florist in the early 1950s. Warren and her ex-husband bought it the late 1970s, and she sold it about four years ago. She still owns the property.
Warren said her plan now is to bring the building up to code and then try to sell the 0.35-acre site.
The Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals agreed to give Warren another 30-day extension, subject to a plan or sales contract, in a 6-1 vote Thursday afternoon.
“It would be nice to have something that we can look at,” Lee said.
Board member Aaron Wells voted “no.”
Earlier this year, the city staff said the building was in “severe disrepair,” and the staff posted an “emergency vacate” on the building on May 1. The business, which is owned separately and has rented the space from Warren, is now unused. At the time, the city staff said there were fire code violations at the building, a leaking roof, electrical hazards, plumbing issues, a toilet that didn’t work, and broken concrete floors, among other things.
Warren has told board members she wasn’t aware of the poor property conditions, and the tenants were supposed to maintain the property and mow the yard.
In June, the board declared the once-thriving store on busy Oak Ridge Turnpike to be a nuisance and unfit for human occupation or use. But the board stopped short of issuing a demolition order and gave the property owner 30 days to present a repair or demolition plan. They also gave Warren a 30-day extension in July.
