Jacksonville Council to Consider Demolition of Cherry Apartments After Jan. Fire

A three-story apartment building known as the Cherry Apartments at 342 West State Street, which burned on Jan. 15, was the subject of a demolition authorization item the Jacksonville City Council considered during its March 8 meeting. The agenda identified the property by address and called for council action on whether the structure should be torn down following the January blaze.

Council members met March 8 with the demolition authorization listed among the meeting’s items. The proposal centered on removing the damaged structure at 342 West State Street, the three-story Cherry Apartments, after the fire on Jan. 15 rendered the building the focus of public-safety and code-enforcement concerns listed on the council agenda.

The building at 342 West State Street is described in the agenda paperwork as a three-story apartment complex, the Cherry Apartments, that sustained the Jan. 15 fire. That date remains the key event prompting the council’s review: the fire is the reason city officials placed an authorization to demolish before the full council at the March 8 session.

The March 8 agenda also showed council members were slated to consider waiving the normal related procedures tied to the demolition item, a separate action listed alongside the authorization request. The inclusion of a waiver on the agenda indicates the council was weighing both the question of demolition and whether to alter the typical procedural steps the city follows before removing a structure.

If the council approved the authorization item filed for the meeting, the city’s next administrative steps would follow from that vote as recorded March 8. The Jan. 15 fire at the Cherry Apartments and the council’s consideration of demolition at the March 8 meeting now set a timetable for whether the property at 342 West State Street will be removed in the coming weeks.