The lawsuit filed against the city of New Orleans (discussed here) has been dismissed due to an agreement reached by the two parties.

Court Documents

City must tell owners before razing

Instead of proceeding with a full-blown hearing over the demolition process scheduled for today in federal court, the city and a group of homeowners settled a lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman on Tuesday, agreeing to a five-page set of rules that prohibit any demolition without warning.

The lawsuit, named for Lower 9th Ward homeowner Mandy Kirk, was filed last month after a city official announced that inspectors had tallied a list of 5,500 buildings as potential targets for teardowns, a number that included more than 1,900 houses deemed in dire need of removal to ensure public safety.

Kirk, who has owned her home in the 2200 block of Caffin Avenue since 1951, wants to rebuild her home, which a city inspector tagged with a red sticker, denoting it as a candidate for demolition.

Dozens of homeowners have cried foul in recent weeks at the idea of bulldozers carting off their damaged homes without any notice, while the city has insisted that many of the structures pose safety hazards. Nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, rooftops still sit in the middle of streets and ravaged buildings block roadways in the Lower 9th Ward.

The lawsuit, however, was dismissed Tuesday, after both sides signed off on a consent decree, which is good for one year. The settlement represents all New Orleans homeowners who have structures facing demolition because of storm or flood damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Written requests

The city has also agreed to take written requests from property owners who want their homes demolished on the government's dime, the decree says. Those forms, when they're developed -- which probably will take several weeks -- will be available at city offices and on the city's Web site at www.cityofno.com, a city official said.

Among the criteria that properties will have to meet before the government will pay for demolition: they must be built below base flood elevation and have damage that exceeds 50 percent of the structure's pre-flood value.

The notification rules for the demolitions the city is planning now vary depending on how a home fared and where it landed. City officials said they plan to begin the notification process this week, meaning that demolitions could start in early February.

For homes that have been blown onto the street, the city must provide notice at least seven working days before demolition. Notices will be published in The Times-Picayune for three consecutive days, and the city will post the information on its Web site.

In addition, the city must send a notice by mail to the last known address of the homeowner -- if the correct street address can be determined.

A homeowner who wants to fight demolition must object in writing within that seven-day period to the city's Department of Safety and Permits.

"The city of New Orleans makes no legal representation that relief will or will not be granted," the consent decree says.

Giving notice

Owners of damaged properties that are now sitting on public property, but not in the street, will get 10 working days' notice before demolition. The city will publish a legal notice in The Times-Picayune for three consecutive days and also post it on its Web site, along with mailing a notice.

All other properties deemed "nuisances" because they are in "imminent danger" of collapse will be advertised 30 working days before demolition, in addition to the Web and newspaper notices.

The city also said it would set up a toll-free phone number for homeowners to call to find out if -- and when -- their house is scheduled for demolition.

The consent decree does not prevent the city from shutting off utilities to any home in order to prepare for demolition.

City Hall also must reimburse the plaintiffs $1,500 in court costs.

The fate of the other homes that have been marked with red tags is still unclear. But the list of homes that fall into that category has been shrinking.

Mike Centineo, director of Safety and Permits, said his office has been re-inspecting all those structures, which originally were examined by workers reporting to the Shaw Group. City inspectors have whittled the list down to about 4,500 "real red tags," Centineo said, of which more than 1,900 are slated for demolition.

The remaining homes on the list, a total of about 2,600, are not believed to be in danger of collapse, so the city will not seek to demolish them anytime soon, Centineo said. City officials have refused to make the list public, saying it has not been finalized.

Could be demolished

Centineo said city officials probably will send notices to the owners of the damaged homes telling them that they are violating city building codes and must make structural repairs to their properties.

If the owners do not comply within a certain time frame -- a period yet to be determined -- those homes could eventually become candidates for demolition.

"We can't just let them sit there forever," Centineo said. "But I don't know of any cut-off point at this point."

To view the online article please click on the following link:

City must tell owners before razing