Cleveland Considers Facade-Inspection Law, After Garfield Building Incident

By Michelle Jarboe McFee, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hundreds of Cleveland property owners could be required to pay for exterior inspections every five years, under a program being considered by city officials after the upper edge of a historic downtown building crumpled to the sidewalk in April.

If Cleveland implements a facade-inspection requirement, the city will join at least nine other major metropolises that mandate periodic evaluations of buildings' outside walls. In most cases, those cities – including New York, Chicago, Columbus and Pittsburgh – created inspection laws after falling debris caused injury or death.

Cleveland avoided tragedy this spring, when aparapet wall at the 1890s-era Garfield Building on East Sixth Street crumbled, releasing a volley of bricks. The major casualty was a Toyota minivan, parked at a meter and thankfully empty.

But, public officials say, we might not be so lucky next time.

"Saying that East Sixth Street was a miracle is not enough," said Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents much of downtown. "You cannot depend on God's miracles through the day. God has other things to worry about."

Cimperman hopes to introduce facade-inspection legislation in July, kicking off a series of public discussions this summer and fall.

His proposal, at this point, would require an inspection every five years for any commercial building or apartment complex that's at least 30 years old and three stories tall.

The law wouldn't be limited to downtown. Property owners would need to hire qualified design professionals to do the work and put together a report, a process that can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000, depending on the city, the size and age of the building, the choice of firm and the extent of the analysis.

That plan isn't set in stone. Cimperman cautions that details could – and likely will – change before and during city council hearings. Ronald O'Leary, the city's director of building and housing, said his department expects to work with council members to craft a proposed ordinance.

It's far too early to say what the program would look like. And the city is sure to encounter critics who say the restrictions are too burdensome or, on the flip side, not stringent enough. But after more than a month of research, it seems probable that Cleveland will pursue a facade-inspection requirement – one that will draw inspiration from laws in other cities, local real estate groups, engineering firms and technical organizations.

"This happened here," O'Leary said of the Garfield Building parapet collapse, which forced the closure of three downtown streets including Vincent Avenue, which still hasn't reopened. "It's something that's reasonably foreseeable that could happen again, given the height of buildings and the age of buildings.

"At the time," he added, "I didn't know enough to say that we did need to do something, meaning that we need to look at our building code and put something in place. ... I'm not going to definitively say we're going to, but that's the direction we're leaning in."

For the rest of the article, including pictures and video, visit the cleveland.com website here.