Oct. 4, 2024, Yuba-Sutter.LIVE
The Hotel Marysville demolition ping-pong ball was swatted back to the hotel owner(s) Thursday, with the release of an Appeal Hearing Board’s decision. The owners may swat the ball into court. The three-member panel declared the fire-damaged building was “a public nuisance,” and “an imminent threat to the public of bodily harm and a danger to adjacent property.”
The costs of demolition are on the owners, the panel ruled. I f the City has to demolish the hotel, the city can place a lien on the property, which, the panel states “may also be recovered as a personal obligation against those persons who might be responsible.”
The 11 page order states “the Panel finds that the Owner has been afforded ample opportunities to take alternate action and has expressed no meaningful intention to proceed with renovation of the Hotel Marysville. It is the finding of this Panel that the Owner has waived the right to seek renovation of the Hotel Marysville and accordingly it is Ordered the structure be demolished.”
The panel ordered owner The Feather River, LLC and its responsible parties to “abate the nuisance by demolition of the Hotel Marysville within ten (10) days from the date of service of this Order, including to obtain appropriate permits to accomplish such action and to provide proof that a competent contractor has been hired to properly complete such demolition (including proof of appropriate financial arrangements for the contractor to complete its work). Such permits and proof of retention of a qualified contractor shall be provided to the City within ten (10) days from the date of service of this Decision pursuant to Municipal Code Section 9.50.180(e)(3). The actual demolition shall be completed within sixty (60) days of the date of this Order.”
“If the permits and proof of retention of a qualified contractor is not accomplished within ten (10) days after service of this Decision, and the nuisance is not abated by demolition within the time specified above, the City in its discretion may abate the nuisance by demolition and, should the City choose to act in such fashion, the expense of abatement and administrative costs shall be made a lien upon the property and may also be recovered as a personal obligation against those persons who might be responsible.”
“In addition to the recovery of the City’s abatement costs and administrative expenses, the imposition of the administrative penalties is affirmed,” the order states.
Those penalties have been racking up into the tens of thousands of dollars, and continue until the abatement is complete: $100 a day since Nov. 7, 2023, the date of the “first Notice of Violation and Penalty Order was served and was not appealed,” the panel declared. A $200 a day penalty began August 1, 2024, added onto the ongoing $100 penalty.
That’s 269 days or $26,900 for the first period, and as of Friday, October 4, 65 days at $300 for $19,500. A total of $46,400 as of today and climbing.
The Feather River, LLC and its controlling parties have 20 days from being served with the ruling to file for a court review.
So this step-by-step legal process could drag on into the winter months, further complicating actual demolition of the hotel… and resolution of the related traffic issues and impacts on businesses in the downtown core.
The panel of independent building officials was chaired by Yuba County Building and Code Enforcement Manager Jeremy Strang, with Will Foote, the Chief Building Official for the City of Lincoln and Joseph Cuffe, Chief Building Official for the City of Citrus Heights joining in the declaration.
READ THE ENTIRE ORDER HERE:
