‘It just continues to drag.’ Miami-Dade’s Unsafe Structures board fed up with delays
When a condominium tower collapsed in Surfside last month, Miami-Dade County had about 1,000 unsafe-structure cases somewhere in the enforcement pipeline. Now the county is under pressure to pick up the pace on tackling problematic structures.
Starting this week, the county began requiring buildings to obtain an engineer’s report declaring a structure safe before obtaining an extension when recertifications are so overdue they’ve been referred to Miami-Dade’s Unsafe Structures Board . “That will become standard for 40-year recertification cases,” said Spencer Errickson, supervisor of the county’s Unsafe Structures division. If an owner can’t obtain an engineer’s endorsement that quickly, the building would have to vacate, he said.
The tougher rule didn’t placate board members, who met Wednesday for the first time since the Champlain Towers South collapse on June 24, a catastrophe that authorities believe killed 98 people.
The board hears enforcement cases brought by county and city inspectors against buildings deemed unsafe or out of compliance with local rules, including inspection and paperwork requirements once a structure crosses the 40-year mark.
Faced with an agenda where staff wanted to defer multiple cases to future meetings, members said they wanted to crack down on the delays.
“We are here every month. Every month,” board member Lynn Matos said during the meeting at the county’s permitting center at 11805 SW 26th St., a session that was also broadcast on Zoom. “I don’t understand how we can have over 1,000-something cases sitting out there, and we don’t know why.”
While cities have their own building departments and inspectors, all but Miami and Miami Gardens use the county’s system for hearing unsafe-structure cases. The board is part of the process used to obtain condemnation orders and other remedies for buildings that haven’t complied with local safety and structural rules.
Board members said they’re particularly frustrated with cities requesting deferrals on enforcement cases without dispatching building officials to the county meeting with an explanation. Wednesday’s meeting included a staff request, which was granted, to defer a case from Hialeah a second time this year, after a deferral in February.
The case, bumped to the December agenda, involved a Hialeah strip club on Southeast 14th Street, Bella’s Cabaret, first cited with unsafe-structure violations in August 2019 for having blocked exits, inadequate restroom violations and improper alterations throughout the building. In June 2020, a Bella’s lawyer said Hialeah and the business were trying to settle the case and wanted a deferral on the Unsafe Structures board until the end of the year.
After Surfside, board members said they were running out of patience watching the delays roll through the agendas.
“The stuff has really hit the fan right now, with this building in Surfside,” said board member Marco Gorrin. “Why are we continuing to defer? ... It just continues to drag.”
Administrators say the violations usually aren’t serious, but involve punch-list items needed to bring a building into compliance, such as proper labeling on a fuse box or stucco replacement. “A good 95% of the buildings come back with minor repairs,” Edward Rojas, head of Miami-Dade’s Building Department, said in a June interview after the collapse. “They’re not major.”
Errickson said some of the 1,000 cases in the board’s pipeline are stalled by court action, where owners sue and freeze enforcement proceedings. Others are considered in compliance as they conduct repairs. He said some cases get delayed once progress is made toward required building fixes, since staff will agree to more time if owners have “demonstrated progress toward compliance.”
“We’re trying to work with them,” Errickson said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 8:32 PM with the headline "‘It just continues to drag.’ Miami-Dade’s Unsafe Structures board fed up with delays."