Citrus Heights Chief Building Official Greg Anderson and Development Services Technician Susan McLendon stand next to a Building Safety Month display at City Hall. // Thomas J. Sullivan
By Thomas J. Sullivan– The City of Citrus Heights is recognizing Building Safety Month throughout the month of May, as part of an international campaign to raise awareness about building safety.
A proclamation was issued by the City Council on April 25, officially proclaiming May as Building Safety Month. An educational display has also been set up inside City Hall.
According to the International Code Council, Building Safety Month reinforces the need for the adoption of regularly updated building codes and helps residents and businesses understand what it takes to create safe and sustainable structures.
Citrus Heights Chief Building Official Greg Anderson and Development Services Technician Susan McLendon are encouraging residents to stop by the lobby at City Hall to see a colorful display highlighting building code awareness, disaster preparedness and fire safety.
A barbecue event will close out the month on May 29, but an RSVP is required ahead of time. Those interested in more information are invited to call the Building Department General Information Line at (916) 727-4760.
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.”
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.
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.
Holding a Citrus Heights city council proclamation in recognition of Building Safety Month, Susan McLendon and Greg Anderson from the building department stand with Mayor Mel Turner (right). Photo courtesy of City of Citrus Heights.
The Citrus Heights building department hosted a Thursday kick-off event in order to raise awareness to Building Safety Month, an international effort which seeks to improve building safety through education during the month of May.
In addition to the city council passing a Building Safety Month proclamation, city officials were at work educating about building safety even before the month-long event began.
An April monthly meeting of the Citrus Heights Neighborhood Area 6 featured a visit from Chief Building Official Greg Anderson who discussed the purpose of Building Safety Month, and explained the “why’s” of building codes.
Although often thought of by homeowners as a nuisance to deal with, Anderson emphasized that his department’s codes have an underlying motivation of “safety first and foremost.”
Highlighting several examples, he offered a reason behind a code requiring buildings to be built no closer than five feet of a property line — explaining how fires can travel more easily from structure to structure when buildings are closer together.
Anderson also explained that Building Safety Month is divided into four separate weeks, with a focus on different aspects of building codes each week.
According to the International Code Council’s website, week one will focus on fire safety, followed by week two on disaster preparedness. The following week will focus on backyard safety, and the final week will close out the month with a slight shift away from building safety by focusing on energy efficiency.
Citrus Heights will also be hosting a few of its own building safety events throughout the month — and such efforts in the past helped Development Services Technician Susan McLendon earn the ICC’s 2013 “Raising the Profile” award.
The community is invited to kick off the start of week one at city hall with chips and salsa at 3 p.m. on May 5. There will also be a barbeque event to close out the month on May 29, but RSVP is required ahead of time.
Those interested in more information are invited to visit the Building Safety Month display inside Citrus Heights city hall, or call the Building Department General Information Line at (916) 727-4760.
