Council discusses whether to charge multi-property owners for demolition costs; law director says changes would be prospective

Councilman Albaugh raised a recurring question about whether owners of multiple demoed properties should be charged, saying property owners with many units should not place the taxpayer burden for demolition on the city. He noted examples of owners with dozens of properties and asked whether the city could recover demolition costs.

Law Director Costa Mastros said he would follow up and suggested the ordinance might need a targeted amendment, emphasizing that any change would be applied prospectively rather than retroactively: "It's prospectively. It's prospectively. Yeah for sure," Mastros said. Council debated whether a prospective-only change would satisfy concerns about fairness to taxpayers and whether staff should provide specific names and options for coding changes.