Motor City considers doubling down on demo

The city of Detroit's department responsible for demolishing blighted properties is asking city council to double its budget in 2024 compared with this year.

According to a Detroit Free Press report, the city’s Demolition Department has cited a pressing need to eliminate blight as it asks City Council to transfer employees from the General Services Department and to double the department’s budget in the 2024 fiscal year.

Specifically, the Demolition Department is requesting a $21.3 million budget in the upcoming fiscal year, a 101 percent increased from the $10.6 million fiscal year 2023 amount.

Demolition Department Director LaJuan Counts tells the Free Press the department would like to add to the Proposal N bond funding it upon which it currently largely relies. That program, according to the Demolition Department, has helped fund the demolition of some 3,000 properties in Detroit.

Counts also says the additional funding can help the department get involved in the demolition of more privately owned but abandoned properties, not just those owned by the city (often after being repossessed for unpaid tax bills).

The Detroit Demolition Department most often oversees the demolition of vacant houses. However, it also has been involved in the recent dismantling of the sprawling former Packard plant and an effort to tear down a former La Choy foods plant.

Counts says there also is a prevention aspect to the increased funding request, noting that although the Prop N bond program has helped take down about 8,000 abandoned homes, “There needs to be a plan to (maintain) the blight remediation efforts and prevent this volume of demolition ever repeating itself.”

The request may get a positive response from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who as mayor maintains a “mayor’s 100” list of properties he deems blighted and ripe for dismantling.

According to the Free Press, the Demolition Department has its own list of 128 properties it wants to take down by 2025. That list includes 85 deemed worthy of “assigning to demolition contractors this year, and the remainder would be allocated next year.”

In the recent La Choy foods demolition project, Detroit-based Adamo Group has served as the contractor. At the Packard plant, Michigan-based Homrich is the lead demo contractor, according to the Demolition Department.

The full Free Press report can be found here.