From the blighted property files

West Lafayette takes on a burned out house on Salisbury Street. Lafayette deals – again – with a landlord up to old tricks. Plus, SIA’s last Legacy. And more.

• Support for this edition comes from the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, presenting Art on the Wabash. The juried art fair will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at Tapawingo Park in West Lafayette. Admission is free. For more, check out Art on the Wabash here.

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THE BLIGHTED PROPERTY FILE

Lafayette and West Lafayette this week addressed a couple of problem properties – one in a prominent location, another with a prominent landlord still pulling the same tricks.

In West Lafayette: The West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission approved a $126,500 price to buy 2016 N. Salisbury St. from owner Vijay Bhatia. A fire in May badly damaged the house and it’s been sitting untouched on the busy stretch of Salisbury Street, a few blocks from West Lafayette Intermediate School, since then.

Chad Spitznagle, West Lafayette housing director, said the price was the average of two appraisals. He said he expected closing to finalize the sale in the coming week or so. The redevelopment commission on Wednesday also accepted a $17,465 bid from Kokopelli Asphalt Maintenance to demolish the house and clear the lot. Spitznagle said the plan was to start that work as soon as the property sale is final.

He said there are no firm plans about what to do with the property – whether to sell the lot or have the city partner on a project – except that it will be used for single-family housing.

What remains of 2016 N. Salisbury St. in West Lafayette after a fire in May. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

In Lafayette: Charles Liu, a landlord whose properties have spurred new approaches by the city to crack down on unsafe housing, was ordered to vacate three upper-story apartments on a house at South Sixth and New York streets until rotting, outdoor stairs leading to them are fixed.

Still in play, a deal on full-access Based in Lafayette subscriptions, good through the end of September.

According to inspection reports presented Tuesday to the Lafayette Hearing Authority , Liu had been called out about the staircase at 304 S. Sixth St., which has posts propped up by blocks of wood and isn’t attached to the side of the house. Mike McIver, a code enforcement officer for the city, said the stairs – the only access to the apartments – didn’t meet codes in several ways. McIver said the stairs posed hazards to residents and to any first responders in case of a fire or other emergencies.

McIver said housing inspectors flagged the staircase a year ago, after being called by tenants to check complaints about potential code violations in one of the apartments. He said Liu received an order to vacate the apartments until the stairs were fixed. McIver said Liu got a demolition permit for the stairs but never did the work.

“Once he assumed everybody was thinking he was fixing it, he did absolutely nothing after that and they started moving people back into it,” McIver said.