Council weighs demolition of boarded house at 2199 Emmons; owner given path to inspections

The Warren City Council held a public hearing on Sept. 23 on a nuisance-abatement petition seeking demolition of a boarded, vacant house at 2199 Emmons.

City staff described a long history of code hearings dating to 2023 and said water had been shut off at the property since February 2017. Paul Lazay, a city staff member who handles the property files, told council the house had been the subject of four hearings and that a partial tax payment last year kept it from foreclosure. Lazay said he had not been inside the house and had based his enforcement on exterior inspections and records.

Homeowner Queen Lutu told the council she had allowed a man, identified in the record as Robert Nichols, to live in the house while he was supposed to maintain it; she said he had been removed from the property but had damaged the inside. Lutu said she has arranged…