An unfinished home in Queen Anne has garnered some negative attention from neighbors recently, including graffiti on its side saying, “Seth Raddue, clean this up.”
The graffiti has since been covered by a big, black plastic sheet.
Seth Raddue purchased the 300 W. Kinnear St. property in April 2005 for $1.25 million. Raddue did not wish to comment for the story.
Construction edits
In April and May of 2012, Raddue obtained construction and electrical permits, respectively. He got what the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) refers to as “over-the counter permits,” which allows for “interior, nonstructural renovation work.”
A DPD inspector, following up on a complaint about the scope of the construction, confirmed the construction was beyond the scope of the permit, and a stop-work order was issued in May for an illegal construction violation. Raddue would need to submit plans for a construction permit for larger-scale construction before work could resume.
When a violation is issued, there is a compliance date by which the homeowner needs to show he/she is taking action to remedy the problem and obtain the proper permits, said DPD public information officer Bryan Stevens.
Raddue had until June 13 to apply or show he was making progress. He missed the date but did begin working to get the construction permits soon after and applied for the permit in August, Stevens said. Sometimes, homeowners are punished when they miss the compliance date, Stevens said, but Raddue filed for the permit within enough time that no action was taken. If Raddue doesn’t continue to work to get the permit, the DPD will send the case to the Attorney’s Office, Stevens said.
With the construction permit application, homeowners or their architects need to submit construction plans for approval. After the first application, Raddue’s plans received some edits from the DPD, Stevens said. The edits must be corrected and then the plans refiled. Raddue currently has “outstanding corrections” that need to be sent to the DPD, Stevens said.
It is typical for a home to go through multiple rounds of construction edits with the DPD, Stevens said. Once the revised plans are submitted, the DPD has one week to review them.
Clean and secured?
In September, neighbors complained that the building was not secure and vagrants were squatting inside. A DPD inspector checked the building and, on Oct. 4, Raddue received a violation for an unsecured, vacant building and for the “junk” on the site. During construction, it’s typical for there to be debris, Stevens said, but if there isn’t any active construction, it’s important for the site to be clean.
With a vacant-building violation, the homeowner must either occupy the building or secure it from the weather and any unwanted visitors. Raddue secured the building by Oct. 18, Stevens said, and he had until Nov. 7 to clean up the site.
“There’s nothing wrong with a home being vacant,” Stevens said; it’s just when it is open that it becomes a problem.
Vacant buildings are put on a quarterly monitoring inspection list if the homeowner doesn’t fully comply with the vacant-building violation, and the DPD checks to make sure the building is secure. A fee of $150 for the first 10 days and $500 for each day after can be assessed to property owners who do not secure their building. A building must be secure for three quarterly inspections to get removed from the list.
“We do try to work with property owners because there are a lot who have fallen on unfortunate situations and they need time to board it up,” Stevens said. “These [things] don’t necessarily happen as quickly as you’d like them [to].”
‘Kind of a mess’
A neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, said the home is an eyesore and dangerous. “It is really kind of a mess every time you drive by here,” she said. “I would be wild if he lived next door to me.”
The neighbor is concerned about the water on the property and transients getting into the property and potentially starting fires. She thinks the home brings down the value of the neighborhood, and she would like to see it demolished so something else can be built in its place.
“You wouldn’t mind if someone was working on it, but they start working on it and it sits for six months to a year,” she said.
Sheryl Feldman lives on Mercer Street, but she walks her dog by Raddue’s house about four times a week. Feldman is not bothered by the house, she said, but she has no doubt there are neighbors who are.
“I’m not affected so I can afford to be philosophical,” she said. “It looks like it could be an interesting house, so I’d like to see it finished.”
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