.jpg)
The city of Lexington is taking steps to address concerns about the Sheridan House property at 201 N. Randolph St., after several neighbors spoke to Council raising concerns about the structure and submitting a petition with over 100 signatures calling for action.
At the City Council’s regular meeting last Thursday, City Manager Jim Halasz informed Council that he had sat down with Chy and Connie Clark, who own the property, to inform them that the city would begin taking action under the nuisance property ordinance to have steps taken to improve the property. The Clarks will receive an official letter of violation this week and will have 60 days to come up with a plan for improvements to the property or appeal the decision.
“I did inform them that they shouldn’t expect any delay,” Halasz told Council. “They need to make a decision. They’re either going to make improvements there or make some changes there [and] develop the property, or if they’re not going to be able to develop the property to be upfront with us about it and don’t make unnecessary delays part of the issue we’re dealing with. It was a very good and positive discussion.”
He also informed Council that, despite the Clarks initial hopes of renovating the home and turning it into a single-family dwelling, they weren’t sure they would be able to do that.
“They’ve been having some problems finding contractors [and] getting estimates for the work they needed done and the last time they spoke with someone very recently, the price was over a million dollars to renovate the home and they freely admit that they just couldn’t do that,” he said.
The Sheridan House – originally built in 1893 by the Sheridan family, who founded a number of local businesses including the Sheridan Livery – was damaged by a fire in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 2016. At the time, the building was serving as off-campus housing for Washington and Lee University students. The fire damaged the third floor and roof of the home and the building has sat empty since then.
The owner at the time, Russ Orrison, applied for a certificate of appropriateness with Lexington’s Architecture Review Board to demolish the building in September of that year, but the application was denied.
Rather than appealing the decision to City Council, Orrison opted to try to go through the city’s by-right process for demolition, which required him to list the property for sale for one year. He listed the property in November of 2016 and less than a year later found a buyer: Jian Wen “Jay” Lu with Gingchu Huang of Vienna. They closed on the property in August of 2017 and attempted to get a contractor to demolish what was left of the roof, but the contractor pulled their bid. While the new owners weighed their options, including potentially applying to demolish the building again, no further action was taken with the property until it was sold to the Clarks in 2021.
The Clarks are now considering their options, including selling the property or potentially beginning the process of demolishing the building, Halasz told Council. They will need to present a plan or take some action within 60 days or the city would take steps to enforce the ordinance and take action to clean up the property.
Council member Charles Aligood asked what would happen if the property was sold, and Halasz said that any new owners would be served with the same violations “as soon as they purchased the property” and similar conversations about the next steps would be had. The 60-day timeline would reset, but the violation would remain.
The process to take action on the property was kick-started by a petition calling for action by the city, started by neighbors who have been living near the property as it has not been dealt with. The petition garnered more than 100 signatures and was presented to Council at its April 20 meeting.
Several residents of the Diamond Hill and Green Hill neighborhoods also spoke during the public comments portion of that meeting, asking Council to do something about the property.
Beatrice Johnson, who resides at 205 Massie Street, just a couple of houses down from the Sheridan House, called the property “a danger to our community.”
“We feel like this house has been in this disarray since 2016,” she said. “Something could surely have been done to this house by now. It’s an eyesore to our community. It is a disgrace to our community… It is not a very good condition for us to have to live with, and we would like to see something done yesterday rather than tomorrow.”
Marquita Dunn, who lives at 222 Massie St., noted that, on windy days, what’s left of the tin roof flaps around and creates noise, that the yard has at times been used as “a beer can depository” and that people “let their dogs do their business” in the front yard. She concluded her remarks by asking Council a question: “Would this dwelling have sat on Main Street or the surrounding neighborhoods in the condition it’s in for as long as it has?”
Mary Ellen Cook of 4 N. Lewis St. reiterated concerns about the hazards created by the condition of the structure, adding that, in its current state, the house is lowering the value of the surrounding property and that there is “a substantial loss to the city in real estate taxes” in its current condition.
“Diamond Hill neighbors have been patiently waiting for more than seven years for plans as to what will be done to remedy this eyesore,” she said. “We can no longer use the COVID19 pandemic as an excuse for lack of immediate attention to this problem. We need to know the plan for the near future.
“As I regularly attend City Council meetings, the most often heard cry is ‘There’s a shortage of housing in Lexington, especially low-income housing,’” she added. “Can we see a plan for a new look on that corner where everyone is in agreement?” At the next meeting on May 4, Council member David Sigler asked that the property be added to the Council’s agenda for future meetings under “unfinished business” and for the city manager to provide regular updates on the progress of the action being taken to address the concerns raised by residents of the neighborhood.
“I think it needs to stay on our radar,” he said. “And it’s private property, I get that, but anything that we can do to help move that process along. I think we owe it to a lot of folks who have lived near that property for the last seven years, and I’m sorry that Ms. Johnson and some others had to come and speak to us and get a petition to get that on our radar, but I think if it’s on every agenda, we won’t forget about it.”
Council member Nicholas Betts agreed.
“This is an issue that affects the city at-large,” he said. “I think a good point was made that if this was on Main Street, would it have sat there that long, so I think this is something that affects the entire city.”
