City officials will use a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to tear down five houses near the northwestern edge of Charleston.
City Council voted to allow the city to accept the grant Monday.
The houses, all located on Rose Hill Drive off Sissonville Drive, will be purchased with a $181,000 grant from FEMA and the WV Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The grant, Charleston Planning Director Dan Vriendt said, is for hazard mitigation.
The houses on Rose Hill Drive have repeatedly flooded, leading to public safety risks. The homeowners have agreed to sell them to the city for their appraised values, and the city will demolish them.
"This is a property that should have never been developed," Vriendt said
All costs will be covered by the grant. Vriendt said the city will let the land develop into a natural green space.
There's no official timeline on when demolition will start, but the official deadline for completion of the project is in April 2020. Vriendt estimates the project will be done sooner than that.
Council members also approved an additional change order for the Civic Center renovation project. The city will pay $119,369 for several projects, including power for lighting on outside benches and the installation of an overhead door in an elevator crawl.
Council also voted to:
n Authorize the Mayor or the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Asphalt Contractors and Site Work Inc. for $172,325 for the Loudon Heights retaining wall repair project.
n Renewed an agreement with Suttle & Stalnaker for a procedures engagement with the city's Solid Waste Facility, operated by Landfill Services of Charleston.
n Purchase a Ford F250 truck from Stephens Auto Center for $25,625. The truck will be used by the police department.
n Purchase a vehicle from Stephens Auto Center for $26,834. The vehicle will be used by the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team.
n Purchase uniforms for various city departments from Cintas.
n Authorize the mayor or his designee to submit a grant application to the Governor's Highway Safety Office to fund coordinator salary, training and overtime for DUI, Click It or Ticket, seat belt/child seat usage, aggressive driving and distracted driving overtime for the Charleston Police Department through the Metro Valley Highway Safety Program.
n Approve a bill to close the right hand northbound lane of Clendenin Street between Quarrier Street and Virginia Street to through traffic.
n Approve a bill to establish a one-hour limit parking zone along the west side of Clendenin Street.
n Approve a bill to amend the Municipal Code of the City of Charleston to reassign the authority and responsibility for establishing and managing parking loading zones from the Chief of Police to the Director of the Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Department.
n Rezone a parcel of land at 2118 Pennsylvania Ave. from residential to commercial. The land will be turned into a parking lot for RMS Pro Finishes.
Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @SchmitzMedia on Twitter.