Abandoned properties are a problem throughout the Metro. 41 Action News covered a new law that will help Kansas City, Missouri take care of blighted neighborhoods. Independence, while a smaller city, has the same issues. A new tool for these cities to make change is coming at the end of summer.
Independence Assistant Community Development Director Mike Jackson spoke with 41 Action News at an abandoned building at 2311 Redwood Avenue. The LLC that owned the formal surgical building let it sit as an eyesore for more than five years. It is now unsafe to occupy.
A new Missouri law will force LLCs to register the name and number of a real person, so the city can force compliance. It'll go into effect at the end of August.
"It's going to be a great morale builder for our staff to tell the citizens something other than, that's it, we can't do anything else," Jackson said.
The city can mow and board up doors, but can't do much else about the rotting infrastructure because they don't own the building.
Out of 8,000 code violation cases in Independence, about 2,000 of them are LLC-owned properties.
When 41 Action News first interviewed with Jackson, the city didn't know who owned the building and used it as an example of a negligent LLC owner.
41 Action News did some digging, and we found the owner of the building, Pauch LLC. The contact listed was Chuck Cuda. The city didn't know at that time because the unsafe property review wasn't due until the following week. The city reviews unsafe properties quarterly.
Cuda bought the property at the end of May and says he plans to meet with the city in two weeks to discuss turning the building into office space. Now, the property has squatters, is stripped of copper, and needs a new roof, plumbing, interior and exterior.
"It's been a grind for the six weeks that we've owned it but hopefully we'll start construction soon," Cuda said.
Jackson said it's still the owner's responsibility to alert the city with renovation plans immediately after acquiring a property. Cuda says he wanted to have concrete plans before going to the city.
Cuda is also behind a few other large renovation projects in the metro, including the former Apple Market on Independence Avenue in KCMO, and the former Country Club Shops on Vivion Road in Independence.
Cuda says the new LLC registration law would have helped him buy the property faster. Records only listed the LLC, but no number.
"Then you have to go through the Secretary of State records and registered agents trying to find the proper person as to actually owns it, so I think it would be great for it to be a little more transparent," Cuda said.
The law goes into effect August 24th. Independence is now forming a plan on how to force hundreds of LLCs to comply.
