The Henderson City Council’s Land Planning & Development Committee met on Friday, August 21, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. in the large conference room at City Hall.
Present for the meeting were council members Mary Emma Evans, Lonnie Davie, Mike Inscoe, and Brenda Peace; owner of the Beacon Light property Sharif Abdehalim and his agent Terry Garrison; as well as city staff members Assistant City Manager Frank Frazier, City Manager Ray Griffin, Executive Secretary Beverly Jackson, and Code Compliance Director Corey Williams.
An audio recording of the meeting is available here.
According to Griffin, members Mike Rainey and Henderson Mayor Pete O’Geary were unable to attend.
After the minutes of previous committee meetings were unanimously approved, Abdehalim told members that he wanted to clear up misunderstandings. He maintained that the Beacon Light property was in worse condition when he bought it than it is now. He also told members that he was the only bidder on the property during the foreclosure sale.
Distributing a copy of sale terms from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Abdehalim claimed that he was required by that agency to “repair the property for home ownership”.
Of the home ownership clause, he said that he had no objection to offering the property in that manner, but that he was skeptical of who would buy it.
Garrison told the committee that he is “in conversation” with another potential buyer who has sent an engineer to look at the property.
Inscoe, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Rainey, told Abdehalim that a demolition order had been passed by the council and that the city needs to know his timeline for repairs.
Under the resolution by the city, the owner has 45 days to come to an arrangement with the city to have the property up to code within nine months of the date of the resolution. He must also submit an irrevocable letter of credit to the city for one and one-half times the cost of demolition should the project not be completed within the alloted time.
In a letter from Vance County Lead Code Enforcement Officer Kevin E. Cash, the burned Beacon Light buildings must be demolished and rebuilt, and the remaining structures must be “stripped down to the studs with complete rewiring, plumbing, insulation, and HVAC.”
A special use permit must also be obtained because the property has not been occupied in over three years.
Abdehalim asked members if he could repair one unit at a time. He later indicated that his timeline for completing the project in that manner was approximately two years.
Griffin and Inscoe both reminded Abdehalim that his attorney indicated that the property could be brought up to code in four to six months during the last council meeting on August 10, 2009.
Inscoe insisted several times that the council needed for Abdehalim to submit a formal plan to the city.
Over the issue of the letter of credit, Abdehalim threatened several times to take the city through “the system”. This, presumably, was a threat of legal action over the issue. He said that he was unable to submit the letter, and reminded members that he already has such a letter on file with HUD for $1.5 million.
“I cannot and I will not,” Abdehalim said of the letter of credit. He later characterized the request for the letter as “harassment” and “oppression”.
At one point during the discussion, Abdehalim offered to deed the land to the city. Griffin responded that the city has not requested the land, but it has requested that the property be brought up to code. At another point, he asked if razing the buildings and planting grass would satisfy the city’s requirements, a question to which Davis responded in the affirmative.
As the meeting drew to a close, Inscoe told Abdehalim that he should put his objections to the letter of credit into his plan.
The Beacon Light owner has submitted a plan along with his request for a two-year extension from HUD. Williams asked for a copy of that plan.
The meeting ended approximately an hour after it began.