Despite already missing one deadline attached to a list of tasks required to be completed by the first week of December, the owner of the Palace Hotel is being “responsive and communicating well,” city officials told the Ukiah City Council Wednesday.
“I did receive an email from (the owner’s attorney, Steven Johnson) on Nov. 10 stating that they’re working to get contractors and trying to get bids,” Building Official Matt Keizer told the council during its Nov. 15 meeting. “Technically, their protection plan would have been due about Nov. 13, based on the letter we served to (owner Twin Investments, LLC, with attention to Jitu Ishwar, requiring ‘timely demolition or stabilization of the structure’) on Nov. 3.”
“As of right now, they had two contractors that came out and gave them bids to do some scaffolding work, but when they found out about some of the standards/requirements for that work, they then actually pulled their bids,” said Keizer, explaining that the city’s building code requires that the scaffolding be able to hold 150 pounds of load, which he described “as an issue with the contractors contacted thus far.”
In the meantime, Keizer said he had been contacting contractors as well “so we can continue to move forward with the process.”
Keizer then reported that the Palace Hotel ownership had also “met with a demolition contractor (Wednesday),” noting that he had received that information from them “within an hour” of the council meeting.
As a whole, Keizer described the ownership as “communicating well, (and) although we do not have the plan yet that we were supposed to have within one week, they are working on it, so we’re going to try and continue to hold their feet to the fire. And I’m also going to work on it on our side, as well, to see if we can get it done faster.”
“I’m confused as to what they didn’t present to us on time?” asked Mayor Mari Rodin. Keizer explained that “What we’re asking for is what the code calls a ‘pedestrian protection plan’,” describing it as scaffolding and a wood barrier designed to “protect the sidewalks and the public as they are passing” the building.
While the city gave ownership a week to present the protection plan, for the “actual demolition plan, they have 30 days. We’re hopeful; we gave them ambitious timelines, and we’re going to continue to hold them to that, but we are at the mercies of the free market and to what can and can’t be done.”
“Are we considering putting up some ‘danger’ signs and rope?” asked Rodin, and Keizer said that the city was “considering all options,” and that he had begun contacting contractors himself “so if we need to, (the city) can move forward on that, but more than likely, we will just be providing that information to the owners,” whom he described as “thus far, very good at communicating with us.”
“(We expect) that they will have a contract signed and they will be seeking permits (for the interim pedestrian safety measures),” said City Manager Sage Sangiacomo, describing that as “the next formal correspondence” he expected the city to be receiving from the building’s ownership.
Because Keizer reported that the Palace Hotel ownership had met with a demolition contractor, Council member Susan Sher asked if that meant they were “leaning more toward choosing demolition as opposed to trying to stabilize the building?”
“I don’t know,” Keizer said. “I say ‘demolition contractor,’ but it could also be ‘stabilizing,’ I’m not sure. I can’t speak to which side of the road they’re going down on that. But it could be stabilization just as easy as demolition.”
“Well, it would be good for us to know that,” said Sher, adding “that I think the public really wants to know that, too.”
“I agree, and currently, they’re supposed to provide that to us within 30 days. As soon as we receive updates, or we know what’s happening, we will bring that to the council, and those records will be made available (to the public), if they can be,” Keizer said.
“Any formal communications will be posted to the city’s website (https://cityofukiah.com/palace-hotel/), and (Keizer) will be back at each council meeting where it’s warranted to provide updates on any informal communications, and other things that are happening behind the scenes,” said Sangiacomo, explaining that there will be “two forms of updates that the public and the council will be receiving.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
While I was the building official for the City of Healsburg there were several unreinforced masonry building renovations in the downtown area. Much of the work to be done was above the public sidewalk. There are pedestrian protection requirements in the California Building Code that address this type of work. Installing scaffolding with pedestrian protection is a very common practice in the Bay Area. There are several companies that specialize in this area. The Ukiah building official is making the correct call here. In my view, the current owners of The Palace Hotel using the excuse that they cannot find anyone to meet the minimum life safety public protection requirements in the California Building Code with regards to scaffolding is just another example of kicking the can down the road and ignoring the imminent hazard the The Palace Hotel presents to the public.
The owners and the city are setting themselves up for a massive lawsuit should anyone be injured or killed by falling debris while walking or driving near this structure. There is a well documented history of unreinforced masonry structures similar to the Palace spontaneously collapsing. Without maintenance, the mortar holding the bricks together deteriorates until the entire structure is nothing but a stack of sand and bricks. Add to that the fact that this is a seismically active area, the potential for disaster should be clear.
The very least that the city of Ukiah can do is to close the sidewalks and restrict parking adjacent to the Palace.
Pinocchio’s Law states that the truth of an explanation is inversely proportional to its length.
Willits has its own Palace Hotel. The Van Hotel. The place does have a business on the ground floor.
For decades, the place has sat with a leaking roof, broken windows.,and structurally flawed. When I arrived in Willits in the late ’60s, it had a couple of working girls living there.
The City, from time to time, had threatened the owner, but those efforts accomplished nothing.
Apparently, the owner’s lawyers were better than the City’s. It is what it is…
Happy Thanksgiving.
Laz
The only way work wìll be done is when the right amount of money is placed in the right palm ! Please , Citizens , unite !