How many boarded-up buildings are there? Enough that SLC is cracking down.

This stretch of Chicago Street offers close-up evidence of why Salt Lake City is clamping down on boarded-up buildings.

Three dilapidated brick bungalows sit in a row, vacant and sealed with boards on their windows and doors, not far from the west side’s Madsen Park, a small green pocket amid blocks of rail yards and commercial development.

Garbage and junk are strewn over their weedy yards and wrecked porches, sprinkled with busted concrete and twisted fencing, beer cans, snack wrappers and a couple of wadded-up emergency foil blankets. A fourth lot on the block is a trashy ditch after that home caught fire and had to be demolished.

Two city enforcement officers pull up for a monthly check. They approach the buildings gingerly.

“There’s always a risk,” says Antonio Padilla, civil enforcement manager with the city’s Building Services Department, as he and colleague Michelle Leonardi eyeball the structures.

“We’re always reminding our inspectors to not go in these properties,” Padilla says as they inspect for signs of intruders. “If I was by myself, I would probably take photos from the sidewalk or farther away.”

With a recent rise in Utahns becoming homeless, problems with vagrancy and trespassers are running high citywide. That trend is now conspiring with wintry temperatures to make empty buildings more vulnerable to break-ins.

“This is actually a good example of our problem,” Padilla says of the Chicago Street homes, nodding toward the nearby pocket park. “We had a lot of people congregating at the park during the day and at night, seeking shelter at these properties, as well as some of the houses that were across the street.”

When inspectors find a broken opening on properties — or other code violations such as trash, weeds or unsafe conditions — owners are sent a notice, Padilla said, ordering them to remedy any problems within 10 days or the city will step in and do that at their expense.

These particular homes are among five contiguous lots owned by the same company, a limited-liability corporation listed in public records as being registered in Florida. Like other properties within two blocks north and south of the exploding North Temple corridor, they are zoned for transit-oriented development.

Efforts by The Salt Lake Tribune to contact the owners for comment were unsuccessful.

Rising costs

According to the latest tally, city inspectors are now patrolling 123 boarded-up buildings spread throughout Utah’s capital, properties that since the Great Recession are supposed to be registered each year under city code, with a hefty and escalating fee.

Those 69 residential and 54 commercial structures now on city books are drawing an outsized share of complaint calls — ranging from assorted nuisance violations to incidents prompting visits by police and firefighters.

A new financial analysis shows it is costing the city nearly $15,551 per boarded-up structure per year to respond.

The city recently boosted its yearly registration fees by thousands of dollars for these buildings as part of an overhaul that also calls for new fines and strengthens other enforcement tools, which include criminal proceedings.

The Building Services Department said the increased fees on boarded structures “cover a larger portion of those enforcement costs.”

“These buildings,” a department spokesperson said in a statement, “can create dangerous conditions for people who may enter them.”

Tougher approach

Property owners will now pay from an initial $3,000 up to $9,000 per year to keep a residential building vacant and boarded, depending on how long it sits. Higher fees now apply for commercial buildings, with registration at between $6,000 in the first two years and a maximum of $14,000 annually when they are vacant six years or more.

Along with bringing city rules into line with state law, the overall goal, according to city officials, is to toughen building-code enforcement and get more properties and construction projects into compliance.

The overhaul holds developers more accountable for damage they might cause to adjacent properties. The changes also boost fines for violating city stop-work orders and give inspectors wider latitude on fines for multiple violations.

Escalated fees on boarded-up buildings remain in place when the properties are sold to a new owner, instead of resetting the clock.

If the city has to hire its own contractor to have a building boarded up, it will pass those costs on to the owner, plus a $500 administrative fee per invoice. Only after the property owner has an approved building permit in hand and new construction is underway will the yearly boarding fees get suspended.

‘Super dangerous conditions’

In approving the changes, Salt Lake City Council members wanted more leverage over owners who are letting properties sit vacant while they wait for financial conditions on development projects to ripen, a practice sometimes referred to as “land banking.”

With interest rates high and lending tightened, city leaders noted, some developers may be temporarily curbing construction, postponing demolition of some buildings. Other properties are just sitting empty for want of the right tenants.

“They haven’t abandoned it,” said outgoing council chair Victoria Petro, whose west-side District 1 covers Rose Park, Westpointe, Jordan Meadows and part of the Fairpark neighborhoods. “It’s not stagnant, but it is definitely attracting people looking for refuge and creating super, super dangerous conditions.”

Petro said she hoped boosted fees would prompt some property owners “to participate in the economic development,” adding that she wanted “to incentivize a change in behavior.”

Council member Sarah Young, whose district spans Sugar House, added that heightened police and fire calls to boarded-up buildings held by absent or out-of-state landowners “make it that much more challenging to be able to keep neighboring residents safe.”

Darin Mano, whose council District 5 includes the Ballpark, Central 9th, Liberty Heights and East Liberty Park neighborhoods, also supported the fee hikes, but he worried it could spur a rush of demolition requests, particularly of disused historic buildings.

“Maybe that’s better than having buildings that are unsafe,” Mano said, “but I would be really nervous if we’re losing a bunch of historic buildings or ones that add to the character of Salt Lake City.”