It returned to its meeting without any public discussion.
Council was asked during its regular meeting Monday to consider approving the proposal as an emergency action, but President Bill Lutz said a number of council members asked for the proposal to be held for a second reading and possible vote at council’s next meeting.
The proposed resolution involves the city’s legal action filed in March against 116 W. Main St. after demolition at the rear of the structure was started, then halted by court order.
The March incident was part of years long discussions and action involving the building at 112-118 W. Main St. in the city’s historic district. Portions of the building date to the 1840s when it was home to an early Miami County courthouse.
The structure was damaged in a January 2020 tornado that hit downtown Troy.
Subsequent court cases have involved the approval by city boards to demolish the building, which later was overturned by the county Common Pleas Court and 2nd District Court of Appeals. Parties most recently were in court on a court temporary injunction against demolition and repairs needed following building department orders finding the building a hazard.
The proposal before council asks it to authorize Patrick Titterington, city service and safety director, to accept title to the property in the name of the city.
It also asks to authorize Titterington to sign a settlement agreement with the owner “in substantial complaint with the agreement presented to the Miami County Common Pleas Court on May 24 …” That proposed agreement has not been made public in court filings or by any parties in the litigation.
Those parties said after a May 24 injunction hearing involving the property was canceled that they were working toward “a mutually beneficial and global solution.”
Several questions about the proposal for the city to accept title to the property were submitted Monday to the city through Titterington. He answered one question Tuesday, saying the city has spent around $60,000 so far on attorneys for litigation involving the Tavern property.
“I cannot say much about the proposed settlement agreement except that Council requested a 2nd reading so that the staff could complete some additional due diligence,” Titterington said .
Other questions submitted were not answered. Among those questions was why the city would accept the property, and what it would do with it.
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