LAWTON – Eighteen more residential properties have been declared dilapidated and dangerous and subject to demolition.
Owners of four of those properties told the City Council that they want to rehabilitate the structures.
One of those 18 properties was granted a reprieve several weeks ago when the owner pleaded with the council for a little time to upgrade the house. However, no repair work was started so the house was put back on the D&D list.
The owners of property declared by the council to be dilapidated and dangerous have 30 business days – six weeks – to acquire a permit to start renovations. After a permit is secured, “There has to be sustained progress” every month on the remodeling project, Acting City Attorney Tim Wilson said.
If a permit is not acquired during that 30-day/six-week period, Neighborhood Services is empowered to have a contractor demolish the structure. The city pays the contractor and attaches a lien to the property. When the property is sold by the owner or at a tax sale, the city recoups at least some of its expenses.
According to City Hall, 193 dilapidated houses have been demolished and 22 have been restored to a livable condition since 2021.
“Our goal is to promote redevelopment” of D&D properties, Mayor Stan Booker told Southwest Ledger. “Renewal may not have to be a single-family house. There are multiple locations where a nice duplex would fit in. But ultimately we want to get these lots back on the tax rolls.”
Abandoned, dilapidated buildings not only depress area property values, but they also often attract vagrants, drug pushers and addicts.
Of the 165 structure fires in Lawton last year, 50 of them occurred in vacant buildings, and six of the 42 structure fires this year as of Feb. 29 occurred in vacant houses, Fire Chief Jared Williams told the Ledger.