*This story originally appeared in The Sentinel’s Oct. 1st Weekend e-Edition. Click here to get The Sentinel delivered to your inbox each Sunday.
Sentinel staff report–
A mountain of rubbish, the smell of charred wood, and part of a still-intact peaked roof were all that was left of a nearly 100-year-old home at the busy intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and Oak Avenue in Citrus Heights on Wednesday.
“I just woke up one morning and it was gone,” said neighbor Kristina Eymert, who recalled her boyfriend heard a loud crash last weekend when the building was believed to have been torn down. She said the home had been an attraction for area homeless after it was vacated by prior tenants earlier this year.
A fire crippled the old craftsman-style home on June 15 and a Metro Fire spokesman previously told The Sentinel it appeared the home “had been abandoned and there had been transients living on the property.” Damage was estimated around $100,000 by fire officials, with investigators determining the fire was “human caused, but unknown intent.”
Prior story: Questions remain about cause of fire at old home at Sunrise/Oak
Several neighbors said they now feel more safe after the building was demolished and transients are no longer able to camp inside. Eymert is hopeful the three-quarter acre property will now be replaced with anything that’s “safe and clean.”
“I don’t care if it’s a laundromat, as long as it’s not some place for druggies to hide in,” said the neighbor. “I didn’t feel safe ever since it was vacant.”
Another neighbor, who preferred her name not be published, expressed similar sentiment, saying the vacant property had become the scene of significant homeless activity.
What’s the future of the property?
The city’s building and planning divisions said no applications or permits have been recently received for the property, located at 7401 Sunrise Blvd. Even the demolition, which requires city approval, was conducted without notifying the city’s building and safety division, according to Susan McLendon, who works in the city’s building division.
McLendon said the city’s chief building inspector has now put the property “in violation,” due to the unpermitted demolition.
As previously reported on The Sentinel, the property has been owned by Sunrise Place, LLC, since at least 2004. The LLC is managed by New Faze Development, a property development company founded by current Sacramento City Councilman Allen Warren.
Several phone messages left with New Faze executives over the past month have not been returned. A receptionist who answered the phone on Thursday said Warren was out of the country and unavailable. An email request to a New Faze vice president asking about future plans for the property was also not returned.
Also on The Sentinel: What’s going on with that run-down home at Old Auburn and Mariposa Ave?
The only development proposal for the property was received by the city’s planning division in 2005, seeking to demolish the old home and replace it with 10 condominium units. As part of the application process, a preservation consultant was hired and determined the home was built “in the teens or 1920’s,” according to documents obtained by The Sentinel.
A determination was made that the home, although old, did not qualify for listing as a historical place or resource and could therefore be demolished. However, Citrus Heights Associate Planner Alison Bermudez said the condo project “never moved forward” and the application was closed.
As of Sept. 28, Bermudez said no other applications for development at the site have been received.
*This story originally appeared in The Sentinel’s Oct. 1st Weekend e-Edition. Click here to get The Sentinel delivered to your inbox each Sunday.
