By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Crews will move forward with tearing down several abandoned and dilapidated properties throughout the city over the next several weeks after the City Council voted to move forward with the demolitions during an Aug. 8 meeting.

During the meeting, council members voted unanimously to accept several recommendations from the Alabaster Housing Abatement Board to demolish the structures.

The council voted to proceed with demolishing dilapidated structures at 229 and 235 U.S. 31, 149 Cohill Lane, 198 10^th Ave. S.E., 691 Ninth Ave. S.E., 515 Fulton Springs Road, 9171 Alabama 119 and a vacant former storefront on Shelby County 11 near its intersection with Shelby County 68.

All of the properties included on the list have abandoned or deteriorated structures the AHAB previously deemed “unsafe to the point of creating a public nuisance.”

As a result of the Aug. 8 votes, the property owners will have 30 days to take the structures down themselves or bring the properties up to city ordinances.

If the property owners do not address the issues within 30 days, the city will pay to have the structures demolished, and will attach the cost of the demolitions as a lien against the properties.

Before voting on the demolitions, the council held public hearings on each of the properties. Bill Thomas, the owner of the property at 9171 Alabama 119, was the only property owner who addressed the council.

Thomas said the property is near the Walmart Neighborhood Market, and said he has been working to sell it to a developer for a few years. He asked council members for more time to repair a hole in the roof of the cinderblock structure currently on the property, and said multiple developers have expressed interest in the property over the years.

Ward 2 Councilman Bob Hicks said the structure could pose a danger to nearby shoppers at the Neighborhood Market.

“My concern is, with the building having a hole in the roof, it’s going to attract all sorts of creatures,” Hicks said. “That concerns me because you’ve got a lot of children and families just a couple hundred feet away shopping at Walmart.”