On Nov. 7 the Albany Landmarks Commission heard from an applicant that the city had fined him $301,000 for failing to get building permits for fixing up an old apartment house. The fine has been sharply reduced, but there’s a story here.
The house is at 230 Sixth Ave. S.E. Alfred Holman bought it last year. He told the commission he found the five apartments inside uninhabitable. And to avoid displacing the tenants, he moved as quickly as he could to make repairs.
He hired contractors for the work. For one reason or another, no permits were taken out. In any case, starting in October 2023, the city issued three notices about work having been done without permits. Then, this past September, it issued a notice of civil penalty: $301,000.
The city code provides for fines of $1,000 for each day of noncompliance. Hence the amount. But as allowed in the city code, Building Official Johnathan Balkema told me, the penalty was lowered, first to $10,000 and finally to half that.
Five thousand dollars is what he ended up paying, Al Holman told me Saturday when I visited with him at the house at 230 East Sixth.
Al Holman stands om the kitchen of the newly remodeled downstairs apartment at 230 Sixth Ave. S.E. on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
This two-story house with a daylight basement has long been divided into five or more apartments. Off and on in recent decades, conditions there included leaking pipes, broken windows, dry rot in the walls, blown fuses, several people in one or two rooms, tenants reduced to using hotplates for cooking, trash inside and out.
Repairs started after Holman bought the place in March 2023.
The basement apartment was the last to be remodeled. It was still vacant Saturday, and he showed it to me: New floors and windows. New cabinets. New stove and stainless steel refrigerator. Walk-in closets with built-in shelves. Fresh paint throughout.
The upstairs apartments were remodeled in the same style, he told me. Among other upgrades, they all have heating and air conditioning units that cost more than $9,000 each.
Holman has been in the insurance business in Albany for nearly 40 years. His firm, H&R Insurance Planners Inc., is at 405 Second Ave. S.E. He also buys old houses, fixes them up and rents them.
On Nov. 7 he was before the Albany Landmarks Commission for a public hearing on his request for permission to use “substitute materials,” specifically vinyl windows, on the Sixth Avenue house. In all the hassle about building permits, someone had seen a photo of a new vinyl window, triggering the city requirement for historic review. (The house is in the Hackleman Historic District.)
Nothing on the outside of that house is the same as it was when it was built in either 1885 (according to the city’s inventory of historic houses) or 1910 (according to the Linn County tax office.) Not the windows, not the siding, and certainly not the massive outside wooden stairs.
The recent work put new windows in where the old ones — also vinyl, Holman told the commission — were broken. The Landmarks board discussed it, then voted, with one member dissenting, to grant permission for vinyl windows.
So the window issue has been put to rest. But given the facts of this house — including decades of problems with habitability that the new owner has solved — why did the issue even come up?
The place used to be a stain on the neighborhood. It no longer is. For bringing about this change for the better, the owner deserves a civic award, not the notice of an astronomical fine that the city then deigned to reduce. (hh)
And here’s another view of the front of 230 Sixth Ave. S.E.
Footnote: On Nov. 14 I asked the city for a copy of the notice assessing the original fine. Albany Community Development Director Matthew Ruettgers replied: “As this is an active code compliance case, the citation is not available to the public at this time pursuant to ORS 192.345.” That section of the public records law makes an exception for material related to pending or likely litigation. Since Holman has already paid the reduced fine, I don’t understand the city’s refusal to disclose the citation. (hh)
Yes, right on! Just say no to pesky building permits. They’re just about making money. While we’re at it don’t allow any lawsuits later against the owner for anyone harmed by any preventable electrical fire, structural collapse, etc. Chose to move in? Tough luck. What’s most important is that it “looks” nice because we all know flippers never cut corners. Make Albany Great Again. SMH
Sounds like the City Of Albany has taken safety and exchanged it to Greed For Profit. The man deserve a medal for his work not fines. Permits?!! So much for a so called free world. Even if you own something,the government has more rights to it than you do.
The city should have helped him keep his residents. He had bonded contractors to do the work and requested permission to use suitable materials. He did all of this without asking for surplus land, funding or donations to improve the livability of his renters. Kudos! to him and to you for speaking up for him.