Elm Street building condemned to demolition

By Grace Lovins

A deteriorating structure at 611 Elm Street in Birmingham was declared condemned and ordered for demolition by the city commission during the Monday, October 27, meeting, despite the property owner’s insistence that the building, while in need of repairs, was structurally sound.

Birmingham building official Jeff Zielke said the city has been aware of the issues with the structure for nearly two years. Per Zielke, the city’s department of public service was notified of a pipe burst at the beginning of 2024. When they went to shut the water off to the building, they discovered the building’s significant deterioration. Zielke quoted one of the city staff members in the meeting packet who claimed the interior looked “like something out of a horror film.”

After that, Zielke stated the city got in contact with the property owner about the condition. He stated his opinion was that the building was uninhabitable and a danger to public safety and as such is required under ordinance to be demolished.

He told commissioners that there were originally talks between the owner and the neighboring development to demolish the building along with three other structures in the area. At one point, permits were approved by the city for the demolition, but the plan fell through.

The building owner, Ralph Faranso, attended the meeting to argue his case, saying that the building needs extensive repairs but he disagrees with the city’s assessment that it needs to be completely demolished. Faranso and his attorney Alan Applebaum provided two reports from engineering firms that Faranso says evaluated the building and determined demolition was not necessary.

Several times, Faranso attributed the ongoing situation of the building to city staff not returning his calls. He claimed that he did not want to get in trouble with the building department for hiring dumpsters and starting to gut the building, and since he didn’t receive any return calls there wasn’t anything he could do.

Several commissioners said they felt Faranso was given ample notice to work this out. Faranso received first notice from the city at the end of February last year, again in May of this year and a final notice in July 2025. They also pointed out that the two engineering reports given to the commission were not properly vetted, so couldn’t be taken into consideration, not to mention one of the reports was over a year old.

“The building official has declared this thing uninhabitable, a danger to public safety,” said mayor pro tem Clinton Baller. “I don’t think we have any choice here so I would prefer to move this along.”

Commissioners voted 7-0 to declare the property condemned and require demolition within 30 days. If the structure isn’t demolished within 30 days, the city manager is authorized to have the building demolished and place a lean on the property for the cost of those services.