City crews tear down wrong building, pledge to actually check map in the future

Article from the Democrat and Chronicle, reprinted by Fair Use. City crews accidentally demolish a citizen's garage.

City razes building by mistake -- again

By Lara Becker Liu
Staff Writer for the Rochester, NY Democrat & Chronicle

(September 12, 2003) — The city is being accused for at least the second time this year of tearing down a building by mistake — but this time, city officials seem somewhat more willing to take the blame.

Raymond R. Mielcarek filed a notice of claim against the city in late August, stating that his five-car garage at 865 Clifford Ave. was erroneously demolished in May, and with it tools and machinery estimated to be worth about $14,122 destroyed. The garages have a replacement value of roughly $27,360, according to the claim.

Mielcarek could not be reached for comment.

The intended target, a vacant carriage house believed to be at 855 Clifford Ave., was easy to miss, said Community Development Commissioner Linda Stango. For one thing, it was obscured by a house. For another, it wasn’t actually on Clifford Avenue.

“ When you’re looking for a Clifford Avenue address, you look for something on Clifford Avenue,” Stango said.

Given the way the street numbers skip around on that part of Clifford, Stango said, logic would tell you that city officials had it right when they pegged No. 865 as the building that needed to come down. But, Stango said, “ that logic didn’t work in this situation.”

“ We just misidentified which building it was,” she said. “ If you go out there and you see the site plan, you can see how this would happen.”

The fact that the garage at 865 Clifford was “ in bad repair” and “ could have been a candidate for demolition” didn’t help, she added. Still, she said, “ the guy had every right to file a claim.”

“ I’ve been here 15 years, and this is the first time in recent history that I can recall just making a mistake like this,” Stango said.

The city two months ago was accused of tearing down a different building by mistake, a multi-unit apartment complex at 305-309 Webster Ave. that a neighborhood group had declared interest in saving for conversion into a tool library.

The group’s plea to put the fire-damaged building on hold came too late in the demolition process, and the city failed to get word to its contractor in time to stop it.

Officials claimed that the group, North East Area Development Inc., didn’t get back to the city about saving the structure until weeks before it was due to come down, despite having been made aware of the demolition months in advance.

“ I really don’t look at 305 as a mistake,” Stango said.

Stango contends that even if the building had been spared demolition, its location in a residentially zoned area would have required NEAD to obtain a zoning variance “ at least” before turning it into a tool library. “ We would have probably ended up right back where we were a month ago,” she said.

But the Clifford Avenue mishap seems to be another matter.

Demolition of the garages, done by Crupi Gravel Products, cost $2,500, according to the city. Now Mielcarek, who says in his claim that he is not represented by an attorney, is seeking replacement of the garages or payment for them; a tax credit and adjustment to reflect the current condition of the property; compensation for lost rent; and payment for the lost tools and machinery.

He also suggests, as a separate option, that the city construct a fence to “ provide security and privacy on the western perimeter of the property.”

The now empty lot has “ local youth walking through it,” Mielcarek states in his claim. “ Local youth drop bottles, cans and paper in the empty lot, leaving it in deplorable condition and in constant need of maintenance. Neighborhood residents also have made the lot a local depository for dog feces.”

City attorney Jeffrey Eichner said the city was still in the process of reviewing the claim, which includes a nine-page spreadsheet listing the contents of the garages.

Meanwhile, the building that was supposed to be demolished, at 855 Clifford Ave., remains standing. Stango said it would likely be torn down in an upcoming round of demolitions.

The city has mistakenly torn down buildings before, including a house at 75 Maria St. three years ago, and another building eight years before that. About 350 structures are demolished each year.

“ I don’t remember more than a couple (accidental demolitions) a year,” Eichner said. “ We don’t get a lot of claims on it. It’s very seldom.”

Stango said that since this latest incident, the city has taken some steps to prevent such mishaps.

“ We now pull out a map with proper addresses (in order to) clearly identify each one if it’s not labeled or is on an odd-shaped lot,” she said. “ I think we’ve taken measures to prevent it.”

LBECKER@DemocratandChronicle.com

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