Planning Commission finalizes abatement list

It’s no secret that there are more than a few run-down structures in Nome. Though it’s easy to complain about town appearances, the topic of upkeep begs the question, why isn’t anything being done about it?
Last week the abatement list for the year was presented to the Planning Commission. Of the eight locations, the commission recommended that five structures be presented to the Common Council for abatement. This is one of the last steps in a lengthy process of removing structures that are considered a fire hazard, health hazard or public nuisance.
Every year City Building Inspector Cliff McHenry prepares the abatement list, a task that constitutes much more than writing up unseemly structures around town. Abatement is “worst case scenario” for a residence, McHenry said, and often it takes many years to land on the list.
“They only get to the abatement list after a long and intensive, from the city perspective, set of communications back and forth,” Chairman of the Planning Commission Ken Hughes told the Nugget.
The city defines a building as liable for fire because of poorly installed electrical wiring, defective chimneys and containing combustible or explosive material. A health hazard is a structure that is in such an unsanitary condition it could cause the spread of contagious or infective disease. A public nuisance is a place that could reasonably endanger person or property other than the owners.
To be considered for abatement the structure needs to fall under at least one of these categories, but often span more.
According to the Nome Code of Ordinances, if the City Council declares a structure abatable, “it may order removal or demolition thereof by the owner of his agent.”
The owner has the opportunity in a public hearing to make comments or provide proof that the deficiencies reported have been substantially remedied, or that steps to remedy the deficiencies have been taken.
“Technically, the city could take possession of somebody’s property if they don’t comply. So it’s pretty serious,” McHenry said.
So, on the dime of the owner, or more likely the city, structures can be torn down. This is the extreme and final step, which is rare for a structure to get to.  
But how do structures get to the point of abatement?
Part of the job of the building inspector is to keep eyes and ears open for the structures in Nome that warrant being listed. Sometimes they’re recommended by other employees of the city, but mostly police reports.
One of the biggest problems that primes a structure for abatement is fragmentation of ownership. Property owners die without a will, leaving several heirs, none of whom have possession of the property. Maybe they don’t agree on ownership, or no one has the money to improve things, so it just sits and decays, collecting debris.
In McHenry’s complied report for this year’s list, of the many correspondences to property owners three letters alerting the property was being considered for abatement were returned to sender, with no known address to forward it to.
Others went unanswered, and this can go on for years.
In Nome, the building inspector can’t issue citations, only notices. When a property begins to violate city code or is deemed unsafe in some way, structural or inhabited by homeless or molding, McHenry writes a letter. Then a follow up, and sometimes multiple. Most often nothing happens. He doesn’t even know if the letter is reaching the intended recipient.
Ideally, McHenry said he would have the backing of the Nome Police Department who could issue and enforce citations when properties are breaking code, like ordinance 18.110.010 which states in zones declared general use, residential, and recreational, outdoor storage including junk is not allowed.
“I’ve been here over two years, I’ve never seen a citation issued for a property condition like junk cars or something simple that doesn’t really require you to go through all this process,” McHenry said.
So things build up, and with McHenry being part time and the only employee in the department, the process takes a while and oversight can happen.
“I feel there should be more manpower put into it,” McHenry said. “At least to have a person keeping up with code enforcement.”
The city does have ways of keeping track and preventing the extreme degradation of abandoned buildings through the vacant structure registry. For a $25 fee, a property that is not legally or currently occupied is registered and required to be secured and in a safe condition.
In theory, the list helps maintain a current contact for owner but there is little incentive for people to register. Right now, there’s only a couple properties on that list, McHenry said.
The city offers services like U-Call We-Haul days twice a year, a $100 “bounty” on junk cars and trucks and a $25 “bounty” on defunct ATVs and snowmachines.
In 2022, an ordinance passed that offers incentives in form of property tax breaks to turn dilapidated houses into rentable units.
“That’s the desire I have, to see somebody take possession of a property and fix it up,” McHenry said. He shared one example of a lot that successfully made it off the abatement list and is now being beautified.
Over the summer Derek McLarty took on the challenge after purchasing a property with two homes on it in worse than fixer-upper condition. It had been on the abatement list for years.
The place was in bad shape. “As you walked in, and it just smelled like you’re about to get pneumonia,” McLarty said.
Over the course of a few months, he cleared the junk from the lot, had one home demolished and has been renovating the other to potentially be a one-bedroom rental.

This wasn’t a project McLarty had done before but he learning curve is what made it exciting.
Because he’s doing most of the work himself, McLarty thinks the property will more than pay itself off if he ends up renting it, and he encourages anyone with an interest to try it out, too.
“This is such a great opportunity, because your return on investment here is unlike anywhere else,” McLarty said. “Anybody who wants to get into it or is, there is a world of opportunity there, but you’re gonna have to want it. You’re gonna have to put in the time.”
The city’s permitting process was very time consuming, McLarty said. Permits applications can only be submitted online at nomealaska.org, it excludes anyone who isn’t comfortable with a digital interface and doesn’t favor a renovator.
“They’re not opening the door and saying, ‘Hey, come renovate your house’ which perpetuates the town look,” McLarty said.
Melissa Ford, owner of local real estate brokerage Nome Sweet Homes, watches the abatement list and properties that could potentially make the list closely to see what she can either buy and fix up or help owners sell.
Ford’s company acts as a catalyst for change with properties that have sat for years. Currently she’s managing the sale of a home that was on the abatement list but is changing ownership, with potential to make progress in maintenance and appearance.
“The city really doesn’t want to take anybody’s personal property, that’s not the goal. The goal is to improve our housing situation,” Ford said.
Now that the list has moved to the final stage, the Council will have to decide what structures are in most dire need of a teardown before the snow starts coming down. They might not make it either, McHenry said, and the structures could sit in frozen decay for another winter.