DeKalb County officials demolished a fire-damaged house in Stone Mountain Thursday morning in the fight against derelict and abandoned buildings.
The property at 1541 Walnut Ridge Court had been a problem for the county dating back to 2012.
“It was gutted, and it was overgrown,” said DeKalb County spokesman Burke Brennan. “A myriad of different code violations, and all of them had gone unaddressed.”
Finally, after four years, DeKalb interim CEO Lee May climbed into an excavator and started the demolition, referring to it as part of an effort to improve the quality of life for the community.
This is known as in-rem demolition, and it allows a government to make improvements to a property without actually owning it.
“It’s the last and final step that the county has in the toolbox for remediating blighted properties,” Brennan said. “Generally speaking, a blight in a community affects the entire community.”
Those effects can range from lowering property values in the neighborhood to discouraging people from moving into the area.
“Blighted properties are a problem throughout DeKalb County,” Brennan said.
He explained that this is not the first in-rem demolition in DeKalb, but it’s a good example of the long process involved.
When a property owner starts to neglect their home, they first receive warnings and citations from code enforcement officers.
“We’ve got boots on the ground and people on the streets,” Brennan said. “These are the people that begin the process if properties become derelict.”
Those citations then turn into court appearances.
“The court finds guilt or innocence, and this process has to repeat itself a number of times before the property is effectively considered abandoned,” Brennan said.
In cases like the Stone Mountain house at Walnut Ridge, that process can take years. While that makes it harder for DeKalb to deal with the derelict properties across the county, Brennan says the law keeps the government from “overstepping” and intervening when you forget to cut your grass.
The demolition of the house cost the county about $11,000, and Brennan said that number fluctuates for each in-rem demolition. The funds come from sources like community development grants, but the county can also recuperate some of that money in tax liens on the property.
DeKalb has more work to do, according to Brennan.
“We have identified 20 more that we’re going to do this year,” he said.
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