PLATTSBURGH — Demolition of the 19th-century house at 330 Cornelia St. had been a long time coming.
City of Plattsburgh building inspector Joe McMahon said the house, which sat in the middle of the city’s business district between Alpha Stereo and Splash Car Wash Express, had been on his office’s radar for several years before the owner demolished it recently.
“It was failing,” McMahon said.
“This house, it was hard, it was a hard process for a lot of years.”
The house changed hands many times over the years, which made enforcing property maintenance challenging for the city. McMahon said he always knew demolition would be the end result for this house, but there was resistance to do so from previous owners because of the house’s age and historic presence in the city’s business district.
Suggestions to put it on the city’s historical registry were made but the condition of the building made that an unlikely possibility, he said.
“It just didn’t make any sense for anybody to do anything with that, other than tear it down, fortunately or unfortunately,” he said.
“If the city owned it, then I guess we could have had more options, but our options were limited.”
When the new owner bought it, however, steps toward demolition were finally made, McMahon said.
He is unsure what the new owner plans to do with the property now.
However, there will be more limitations for any structure built on the property this time around. The city’s current zoning laws, which didn’t exist when the Cornelia Street house was built in the 1800s, don’t allow for residential use in that district anymore.
The now demolished house was “grandfathered” into the zoning laws, meaning it could have stayed there for as long as possible if it was safe and the owners wanted it to, but as soon as it came down, any newly built structures there would have to comply, McMahon said.
“If he (the new owner) wanted to turn it into a house or an apartment complex, he’d need a use variance for it (now),” he said.
“I’m sure he knew going into that, that residential was not going to be an end result here at the end of the day.
“If that property was in a residential district, where housing and apartments are more likely, somebody might have tried to save that, but because it was there, that residential aspect was going to go away sooner than later. and it just makes perfect sense to level that now for several reasons, and then figure out what to do commercially moving forward.”
VACANT REGISTRY
The Cornelia Street house was one example of how the city’s vacant registry law — passed by the Common Council late last year — may entice property owners to not leave a building vacant for years on end anymore.
Under the law, which went into effect in March, property owners are required to register their vacant properties and obtain an annual permit for a fee to operate in the city.
McMahon said the law, while new, has been doing its job as owners either choose to register their properties, put it up for sale or choose to inhabit it. In this case, the owner chose to take the building down.
Throughout 2024, 50 properties were identified for the vacant property registry so far, with 11 registered, 12 having worked their way off and six granted extensions.
“It’s not perfect but lots of times this office gets saddled with local laws that weren’t our idea, but this one was our idea … and it’s working pretty good so far,” he said.