Located in a small shopping center on Tyler and Tyrone roads, Classic Cleaners was given 10 days to vacate in February after the city staff said it found very serious code violations and structural issues in the building, which also houses a handful of other businesses.
A city board on Thursday will again hear the two cases against the owners of a commercial building judged to be “in disrepair†near the Magic Wok restaurant in central Oak Ridge.
In February, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals tabled a demolition or repair order for 60 days to give the owners, Ma Shiu-Yen Wang and Ta-Shun Etal, time to sell the damaged property or develop a repair or demolition plan, the city staff said.
That 60-day postponement expired last Sunday.
The two cases concern the 50,000-square-feet commercial building at 123 and 135 E. Tyrone Road, just north of Oak Ridge Turnpike near Jackson Square. They exclude the manufactured structure that houses the Magic Wok, but they do include the areas in the small shopping center that have housed a dry cleaner, thrift store, wig shop, Mexican grocery, and the Magic Wok’s food preparation and overflow dining areas.
In an agenda for Thursday’s meeting, the city staff said the partially occupied structure was declared unfit for human occupation or use because of code violations.
“It is in a state of disrepair and lacks adequate facilities for egress in the case of fire or panic,†the agenda said. “Roof and interior throughout the building have remained insufficiently maintained for several years. This has allowed further dilapidation and decay to occur in the majority of the building, which increases the hazards of fire, accident, or other. Required fire sprinkler system throughout is out of service due to a catastrophic failure, which further causes the entire building to be dangerous to the health and safety of the occupants and general public.â€
The staff said the estimated cost of repairs exceeds 50 percent of the building’s value.
In February, a longtime dry cleaner located in the small shopping center was given 10 days to vacate, but it’s not clear if the business has moved out yet.
This winter, the city staff said 40 percent of the overall structure was deemed unsafe for human occupation or use in November 1997, and a city walk-through the following month resulted in a space-by-space account of violations that were reported to the owners by letter in February 1998.
“To date, there appears to have been no substantial building or fire safety improvements in accordance with adopted building or fire code requirements over the past 17 years,†according to a Feb. 19 memo from city employees Denny Boss, Josh Waldo, and Matt Widner.
Thursday’s meeting starts at 3 p.m. in the Municipal Building Training Room.
Cindy McCullough says
I really don’t understand why there are so many buildings in such states of disrepair in Oak Ridge. is this common in TN? Why do the building owners not fix them when the roofs leak, etc.?
bill bradley says
Good evening, Cindy: While I agree it’s sad, let’s be honest about this. I recently made a wrong turn and wound up driving down 11 blocks in Gary, Indiana…. in what I think was once a downtown area. Not a single building was occupied…except for one which was a bar. Not one single business was operating there. It’s obviously a nation wide problem, not one unique to Tennessee.
Cindy McCullough says
To me unoccupied is a bit different than buildings that are occupied and being used to run a business. Gary is quite a bit larger than Oak Ridge also. The city in Wisconsin we moved from, had some run down buildings, a few were torn down while we lived there. But not to the same amount that Oak Ridge does, and the city we moved from was a bit over double the size of Oak Ridge in population. But again what I really don’t get it, are run down buildings that people are trying to run a business from. The owners of those buildings are making some kind of rent, one would think, and yet, they don’t take care of their buildings? That building should be part of their livelihood. What can a city do to punish those building owners?
bill bradley says
Our weather must be a shock to you guys, moving from Wisconsin. A whole lot of O.R. was originally built to really last 10 years or less so a whole bunch of O.R. buildings are probably in bad shape these days.