Jost: I move Moermond's recommendation.
Adopted
6 -
Yea:
Councilmember Noecker, Councilmember Yang, Councilmember Bowie,
Councilmember Jost, Councilmember Johnson and Councilmember
Privratsky
0
Nay:
1 - Councilmember Kim
Absent:
Ordering the rehabilitation or razing and removal of the structures at 692
SIXTH STREET EAST within five (5) days after the June 18, 2025, City
Council Public Hearing.
36
Removal ordered within 5 days.
Mark Ciccarelli, owner, appeared in person
Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer: My recommendation here is to order the
building removed within 5 days with no option for its rehabilitation. I am asking for a
shorter time period than the traditional 15 days because of the state of the building.
You can see on the screen in front of you that there's a photograph of the building from
the front that clearly shows fire damage. A photo from the back also shows significant
fire damage. It has been my view consistently that fire damaged structures, whether
they are immediately going to fall down or whether they appear like this, present a
substantial nuisance to the neighborhood.This has been in the vacant building
program since February of 2019. Things changed for the building considerably in June
of 2021 when the fire occurred. The fire was spotted by a vacant building inspector
doing his rounds down the street. This was his next building and he called 911, and the
fire was put out. Since that time we've seen 25 summary abatement orders and 26
work orders, meaning the City has been the only one doing work to maintain and keep
the nuisance conditions at bay. Those orders included boarding the building,
shoveling, mowing the lawn, and so on. The City has taken complete care of it. There
are 2 owners of this property. Mark Ciccarelli is here today. The other owner is Hossein
Varasteh Amiri, who is not here today. The mail for this property has been addressed
to the address of Amiri that he provided to Ramsey County taxation. A servicer went to
serve the information on these hearings to the address of the LLC who owns the
building and there was no one there. The first legislative hearing I conducted on this
was on May 13. No one showed up. The second time I spoke about this was June 10.
What was strange about that is that it wasn't on the Legislative Hearing agenda for that
day. Ciccarelli had come in because he had just learned about this proposed order for
removal, and he did not want that. The 2023 and 2024 property taxes are delinquent.
There was a code compliance inspection a few years ago that has since expired. No
performance deposit has been posted. This is a building and a property that's been
completely abandoned and presents a very disheartening nuisance to the immediate
neighbors, if not the neighborhood at large.
Mark Ciccarelli: I've lived in Saint Paul my whole life. I live in Highland Park and
bought the house almost 2 years ago for one of my employees, Jose, who is here with
me today. He was going to fix it up and live there. That was the intent when I bought
the house. I didn't even know that it was considered a rehab house. When we started
doing renovations, the City told us we could not do the work without a permit. They said
the house had to go through a special process of having plans drawn up. The house is
in the state that it is because the City wouldn't allow us to at least side the front of the
house and make it look presentable. Before the City ever told us, we gutted the entire
house, cut down trees in the backyard, and mowed the lawn. I was buying the house