Prompted by questions from an audience member, city staff gave the Ukiah City Council an update on the status of the Palace Hotel Wednesday, though few new details were shared.
“There is no additional update, this is an administerial process on a privately owned property,” Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told the board during its June 19 meeting, after Council member Mari Rodin asked that staff respond to the public comments by resident Pinky Kushner, who asked whether the building was in escrow and who owned the building, and requested that the Palace Hotel be put on a City Council meeting agenda to allow for “a full and open discussion” on the matter.
“The building permit application for demolition came in under the building owner’s name, Jitu Ishwar, so our understanding is that that is still the property’s owner,” Riley continued, describing any change of ownership as “a real estate transaction between private parties, so we don’t have additional details about that.”
As for the status of the building’s potential demolition, City Manager Sage Sangiacomo said the owner of the building had “submitted a demolition permit and the permit has been approved, (but) there are outstanding submittals that we have yet to receive before they can proceed, but those are relatively typical.”
Sangiacomo described the owner of the building as “currently vetting those (remaining) issues and vetting contractors, so we will certainly continue to engage. Our goal is to get to a successful outcome that deals with the health and safety issue that the public and the council have noticed.”
In terms of putting the matter before the board, Council member Doug Crane asked if there were “any items that are before the council now, in terms of decisions or discussions to hold on this topic?”
When Riley said there were not, Crane asked what might necessitate such a discussion, and Riley said she had “no good answer to that hypothetical question, (only that) there really isn’t a decision point for the council at this point.”
However, Sangiacomo noted that “noncompliance would be such (a trigger). If we saw that there wasn’t reasonable attempts and progress to deal with the health and safety issues, staff has tools in place (to respond) if needed. But so far, there have been reasonable efforts.
“And remember, the Palace hotel issue has been going on for multiple decades, and the fact that within a seven-month time frame we are where we are today, that’s really fast,” he added, noting that, “I think that ensuring that there’s due diligence in this very critical part is absolutely reasonable.”
Crane then further explained that “part of the reasons why I’m asking is that several community members have asked, ‘so when (will it be time) to decide they’re not going to perform (the tasks needed)?’ So it’s something that needs to be on our minds.”
“It does, and it is on our minds,” said Sangiacomo, explaining that with another winter approaching, having the structure degrade even further in wet weather “may not be acceptable, and we will have to ensure we engage with ownership to ensure we get results.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
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