Desert Local News - Index

Desert Local News - Desert Local News March 18th 2008 Print and Virtual Edition - Index

14 SHOP LOCAL
Ken Dow:
No help from City Hall
By Dean Gray
Ken Dow is stuck with a piece of downtown
property and can’t do anything with
it. He’s stuck because he can’t rent it and
no one is interested in buying property the
city prevents use.
Code enforcement officers told Dow
to demolish his historic building because
the framing is not up to the current building
code. Across the street there’s other
businesses the same age and built with the
same construction standards wide open for
business. Ken feels singled out.
Dow is frustrated as he says, “I can’t
sell the place because the city won’t allow
a business to operate here. For some reason
they tell me I have to have handicap
parking. Businesses across the street don’t
have that. Why only me?”
A small fire in 2006 slightly damaged
the façade of one building. ever since Ken
has been stymied by government red tape
preventing him from performing needed
repairs. “I’ve heard a rumor that about a
city program for storefront improvement.
I’ve asked. no one at City Hall knows anything
about it,” says Dow.
Dow says the city is not interested in
purchasing his property for redevelopment.
“They’ve bought vacant lots of absentee
owners. I don’t know why they got
special treatment. The city’s made it impossible
for me to sell it and at the same
time they won’t buy it either.”
Ken is no DHS newbie; he’s been in
DHS for 33 years of his 45 year old life.
He’s a single father raising his daughter,
Maryanne, age 16, in a house on the property.
Ken was a truck driver who got injured
and whose future now hinges on selling
the property.
The lot measures 50 x 130 and the
several long surviving buildings have had
many unusual lives. Ken bought Cleary’s
Western Outpost in 2000. Out of one building
was a western wear store, in the other it
was a feed store.
A ramshackle building in the back an
authentic piece of Desert Hot Springs history,
was once a lumberyard many years
ago. The property has seen better days and
was most recently a thrift store until last
year when the fire caused cosmetic damage
to the false front.
“I’m not asking for a lot for the property.
I know the economy stinks. That’s
not what this is about. The truth is… I’m
stuck. The City has made it impossible to
sell, impossible to rent, and impossible to
use. And that’s not fair,” says Dow.
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