MARATHON — City officials are being particularly proactive in the recertification of aging buildings and expect to have issued 100 notice of inspection letters by the end of the year.
Back in July 2021, the Surfside condo collapse tragedy in Miami-Dade County resonated strongly with the Marathon City Council, prompting almost immediate reaction toward reviewing the city’s building re-inspection policies.
At that time, the state required recertification for high-rise buildings every 40 years. Miami-Dade County amended its re-certification standards to 30 years and every 10-year interval thereafter. Miami-Dade also added provisions that coastal condominiums and buildings three stories or taller built between 1983 and 1997 located within 3 miles of the coastline, and all other buildings built between 1983 and 1992 must have a recertification inspection by Dec. 31, 2024, and every 10 years thereafter.
Marathon, following that lead and the direction municipalities across the state, began taking steps to strengthen its building inspection and certification protocols, adopting Ordinance 2021-029 in December 2021. The ordinance revised Section 6-95 of the city code to require recertification of buildings in existence 17 years or longer, with subsequent recertification every 10 years thereafter.
That required a building owner to have the structure inspected to determine the condition of both the building and its electrical systems. The owner is now required to submit a written recertification report to the Marathon Building Department, “prepared by a Florida registered professional engineer or architect, certifying each building or structure is structurally and electrically safe for the specified use for continued occupancy.”
Since then, Building Department Manager Gerard Roussin said the city has issued 42 letters to commercial and multi-family property owners whose structures are now due for an engineering inspection. Approximately 50 more will be issued by the end of 2023 based on reviews of 10-block sections of the city. Single-family homes, duplexes and minor structures are excluded from this ordinance.
Roussin said that “in order to manage the impact on local service workers, this segmented approach will lessen the impact on businesses that provide spalling and electrical repairs.”
The letters require furnished proof within 30 days that a building and/or electrical permit has been obtained and pulled by a licensed contractor registered with the city of Marathon.
When the ordinance was first implemented, the city identified properties like Bonefish Towers and Sea Watch, which has undergone extensive spalling repairs the past several years, as increasingly vulnerable to structural issues given their age and susceptibility to salt air and water. The plan now is to widen their net in the interest of safety.
In 2022, the city declared the Mariner Place apartments, 20 Coco Plum Drive, uninhabitable and called the condition of the building a matter of life safety. Accordingly, the tenants were given less than two weeks to vacate before the electricity to the 16-unit apartment complex was disconnected. Built in 1978, the apartment building was the first structure flagged for recertification of unsafe structures.
As of today, no permits have been pulled to start repairs to the apartment building. According to Marathon City Manager George Garrett, no work has been done on the property and he believes it’s now up for sale. He said repeated attempts to contact the owner for an update on repairs have been ignored.
He added that was it unfortunate the residents had to quickly vacate, as Mariner Place, while not deed-restricted, was one of the truly affordable housing complexes in the city.
Garrett also said that the strip center near Publix on 53rd street is in the middle of spalling repairs, as is the mixed-use Panda Restaurant on U.S. 1. The spalling repairs at Marathon’s long-standing sole Chinese restaurant have been ongoing for months.
Marathon is exercising its right under Chapter 166 of Florida Statutes, which grants the city broad municipal home rule powers, to provide for the health, safety and welfare of its residents, business owners and visitors by enacting regulations for the protection of the public.
Ultimately, the goal by year-end is for all buildings that are recertification-worthy to have undergone this rigorous process, which will help to ensure no tragedy like Surfside occurs in Marathon.
