Aberdeen City Council approved the first reading of a vacant building program, but before doing so, they entertained an amendment to the area in question.
Aberdeen City Councilor David Lawrence made the motion to expand the area west to include Park Street because there’s a building on the southwest corner of S. Park Street and W. Market Street that is an eyesore. Before Lawrence motioned to expand the boundary to Park, fellow Councilor Kacey Morrison made a motion to extend the boundary to Alder Street, which is one block east of Park.
“There’s no name on it, it’s just boarded up,” Lawrence said after the meeting. “There are sheets … every time I drive by it, it looks horrible. And the tourists who go through town, who then go out of town and see that … it’s one of the most horrible looking buildings in town as far as I’m concerned.”
According to Lawrence, the light-colored building “used to be like a small engine repair shop.”
“A guy had chainsaws, lawnmowers and stuff — probably 10 or 15 years ago,” Lawrence said. “But it’s just, they’ve got a fence around it now. Probably last year I’d see homeless people coming out of it. They tore the boards off it and they were living in it. It’s just horrible looking.”
The area the vacant building ordinance was initially supposed to be specifically for downtown Aberdeen, where the majority of vacant buildings are. City documents explain why there’s a need for the ordinance.
“Due to the number of complains and concerns centered around vacant buildings in our town, the mayor and city administrator have directed city staff to explore the possibility of implementing a vacant building program,” states the request for council action. “Vacant buildings have led to increased vagrancy, vandalism, loitering and generally an eyesore to our central commercial business core.”
The ordinance would require property owners — “responsible persons” — to maintain each structure they own. The basic maintenance would include all exterior surfaces; repair broken or missing windows; protect exterior wood surfaces other than decay-resistant woods; cause all siding and masonry joints and joints between building envelopes and perimeters of windows, doors and skylights to be weather-resistant and watertight; coat all metal surfaces subject to rust or corrosion; maintain all exterior walls free from moss, algae, dirt, grime, holes, breaks and loose or decaying materials; and maintain roofs and flashing of all structures in a fashion that is sound, tight, free of moss, algae or defects that admit rain, attract pests or create a public nuisance.
Fees have been discussed for property owners who do not maintain their buildings.
The rationale for such a program, according to the document, is “vacant and-or abandoned buildings often function as magnets for crime. They lower the value of nearby properties. They are associated with more fires. They seem to generally degrade the social fabric of the communities around them and even impact people’s mental health.”
The request for council action document backs up Lawrence by stating such buildings “amount to a bad look, one that is particularly unhelpful to the cause of breathing new life into urban commercial areas like the downtown core.”
But, now, with Lawrence’s motion — which received full support from the council’s vote on his motion — the boundary has been extended all the way to Park Street.
Fellow Aberdeen City Councilor Liz Ellis gave her thoughts on the motion.
“Originally I think the focus was on the downtown core,” Ellis said. “Yet all the way to Alder (Street) and Park is essentially a commercial area, or there’s certainly a lot of commercial buildings within that boundary. I think it’s great especially since we’ve got the highway going both directions all the way to Park. That’s a natural boundary to stop at. So I was pleased that the amendment was brought forward tonight and I was happy to vote ‘yes.’”
Shopping carts
The city council also passed the first reading for Aberdeen Municipal Code 8.08 for shopping cart containment and retrieval. There will be a public hearing on shopping carts at the next city council meeting.
Lawrence commented on the carts as well. He sounded puzzled why they’re out on the public streets. He’s not alone as other people through the last few months have wondered why so many people are using them throughout the city.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Lawrence said. “I think they’re stolen property, in my eyes. I don’t know why they’re allowed to be out on the streets. They’re stolen. You can’t go buy one. I can’t go buy one downtown. They’re stolen from the store. If I take something out of the store, it’s stolen property. I don’t know why they’re just not confiscated.”
The carts aren’t hard to spot. As of Thursday mid-afternoon there was a person sleeping shirtless near a couple shopping carts at the northwest corner of East Wishkah and South I Street. Next to him was a man rummaging near two Safeway shopping carts. Other people have been seen with Walmart shopping carts.
Ellis said she’s been concerned about the shopping carts ever since she joined the Aberdeen City Council in 2020.
“That the businesses with shopping carts needed to take responsibility for those, either by having some way of preventing the carts from leaving their property, or going out and retrieving them, rather than city staff spending their time and our tax payer dollars rounding those up, warehousing them, and often they never get picked up and claimed,” Ellis said. “And so to see this actually move forward, it’s long overdue. I sure hope it starts to make some changes.”
Ellis made a point about the carts — perhaps why there’s another side.
“I do understand that people need a way to transport their belongings,” Ellis said. “They may not have a car or other vehicle and the city’s been in conversation with CCAP (Coastal Community Action Program) to see if CCAP can help purchase some carts that people could use on a temporary basis. And especially folks who are waiting to get permanent housing and they have nowhere to store their belongings, let alone get them from point A to point B. That would be really helpful, a place where they can store possessions and a way to move to an appointment or other services where they’re required and need to have some of their stuff.”
Ellis said The Moore Wright Group has small lockers people can use, which is great for a backpack or purse for important items.
“But for people on the street who, everything they own is in a cart of some sort, this could be really helpful and free up those carts to be in service as shopping carts at their parent stores,” Ellis said.
Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.
