Salt Lake City officials on Tuesday called for the owner of four boarded-up and dilapidated homes on Major Street to demolish the buildings in 10 days — or else the city will.
Ballpark residents had been asking the city to act after a series of four fires since Nov. 27 ignited at the houses, located on the west side of Major Street just south of Harrison Avenue. One home has burned three times, with the most recent fire sparking Dec. 10.
Standing in front of the charred remains of that house, Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced Tuesday afternoon that the city had filed an emergency demolition order for all four properties. The orders were taped outside the homes and stated the city has “determine[d] that the Property creates a danger to person who may enter the Property and creates a danger of fire.”
Residents have theorized that people experiencing homelessness broke into the houses and lit fires to keep warm. Salt Lake City Fire Department Captain Shaun Mumedy said Tuesday that investigators had not yet determined the cause of the fires.
Mendenhall said Tuesday that while the properties have made headlines because of the recent fires, “the more full pictures of these four properties goes back years.”
“This is years of egregious states of disrepair in all four buildings, years of dilapidation and unsafe conditions,” she said, ”and they have continued to prevail despite the city’s best efforts ... to try to have the property owners come into code compliance.”
The mayor said that a year ago, officials recognized the buildings were dangerous and the city’s civil enforcement team began fining the property owner daily. Those fines now total about $50,000, she said.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Four homes in the Ballpark neighborhood were posted with an order for emergency demolition on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, after a series of recent fires.
Thomas Investment Holdings LLC owns the buildings, according to the Salt Lake County Assessor’s Office. The holding company’s listed phone number was met with a busy signal each time The Salt Lake Tribune called to seek comment Tuesday.
Ballpark Community Council Chair Amy J. Hawkins told The Tribune that she was happy that the city was taking action to knock down these homes, but she worried that other fires could break out before the city’s Dec. 23 demolition deadline.
On Monday, residents gathered at RoHa Brewing Project, located at nearby 30 Kensington Ave., for a letter-writing campaign to help build a criminal case against the property owner. Despite the city’s announcement, Hawkins still encouraged residents to mail any drafted letters to the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Hawkins said Ballpark residents are asking for bigger policy solutions to solve the neighborhood’s issues with repeat nuisance crimes and fires. She said absent longterm housing solutions, people seeking shelter in these abandoned homes could just move to others.
“We anticipate that they’re going to go to other boarded and vacant homes either in our neighborhood, or in other neighborhoods with a bunch of vacant homes, like Glendale, like Fairpark,” she said, “and no community deserves this problem.”
Correction • Dec. 14, 2 p.m.: The story has been updated to correct the name of LLC that owns the four Major Street properties.
