Salt Lake City set to demolish Ballpark vacant houses

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall authorized an emergency demolition order on four Ballpark properties Tuesday.

Mendenhall said that all four buildings on Major Street are causing issues for the Ballpark community, with two of them catching on fire multiple times in the past month.

She explained that these properties are not just a recent problem but something the city has been trying to resolve for years with the property owners.

“A year ago, because of the continuation of a lack of action of the property owners, our civil engineering team began imposing daily fines on the owners of these buildings due to the instability of the structures and the threat of fires,” Mendenhall said, at a press conference outside the homes. “In one year’s time, these fines are now just touching $50,000 in total across all four properties.”

She said that the city wants to respect property owners’ rights, but the four homes’ safety issues are unacceptable.

Today, in the interest of public health and for the safety of #SLC residents, I am taking the unprecedented, but critical action of authorizing an emergency demolition order for four unsafe properties on Major Street. pic.twitter.com/WLndfnw23E

— Mayor Erin Mendenhall (@slcmayor) December 13, 2022

Salt Lake City officials sent a letter to the property owners notifying them of the emergency demolition order.

The property owners have ten days to demolish the buildings on their own terms, or the city will demolish them and bill the property owners, according to Mendenhall.

“In short, if these structures, which have for too long posed a liability to our neighborhood, are not gone by Dec. 23, the city will take action that it needs in order to keep this neighborhood safe,” Mendenhall said.