It’s interesting what it takes to pull the cover off a dangerous, overcrowded building and officially expose what is already well known to its neighbors. Actually, what’s already well known to Brookfield’s village staff.
There is probably not a house or commercial building on any block in any town where people don’t wonder, “How do these people get away with this?”
Yet, despite complaints by neighbors and others, the problems persist. In the case of 9508 Ogden Ave., the problems have existed since at least 1995, when they first surfaced as part of a real estate resale inspection. It took a fire last week to get the problem back on the front burner.
The stuff really hit the fan in 2000, when the village took the building’s owner to court (after police responded to an incident at the building), seeking to have the building shuttered. But, through many and various foreclosures, sale of the property and ownership transfers, property owners have been tough to pin down.
Part of the problem has been that since 2000, Brookfield has undergone a couple of political transformations, both of which affected the village’s building department. While the issues with the building resurfaced from time to time, the owners were able to fly under the radar using delaying actions and by simply refusing to comply with village directives.
Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral, who has also headed the building department since 2006, said that this time, the building will be brought into compliance or demolished. We’ll have to wait and see how the new owners of the property, who acquired it in its third foreclosure in 12 years, respond to the village this time.
If the building has the kind of issues, including structural, that Sbiral is indicating, then the ultimate solution should be demolition.
We have no idea whether that’s on anyone’s radar, but this turn of events raises the possibility.
What this turn of events raises is the issue of the village’s building department, how it has been run in the past and how it must operate in the future.
From the village’s own historic file on 9508 Ogden Ave., it’s clear that record keeping going back many, many years has been utterly lacking in organization, clarity and consistency. The file is simply a jumble of papers with little attempt to make sense of the documents.
Sbiral has said all of that has changed under his watch, which can do nothing but benefit the village when it comes to issues like this. The village has got to have a clear paper trail to crack down on negligent property owners and seek remedies before a potentially lethal fire or gas leak-both of which were real threats, apparently, at 9508 Ogden Ave. well before the March 4 fire that got the village back inside the building.
Professional staff, employees who can survive political turnover and political whims, are the ones who will assure that these problems don’t keep falling through the cracks. Brookfield’s leaders have to make sure they keep their eye on that ball as a new election season dawns later this year.