Nutter Announces New Regulations and Proposals on Building Demolitions

In a 2:30 p.m. press conference, Mayor Nutter announced a series of new regulations and proposals meant to shore up the sort of mind-blowingly crappy demolition that caused the building collapse on Wednesday. Nutter says the new standards and procedures for private demolition work, which can be implemented through regulation, will now begin to resemble the sort of work done on public projects. Among them:

• Use of mechanical demolition machinery will be prohibited when an occupied building is adjacent to the one being demolished.
• Demolition permit plans will have to include “details on the experience and qualification of contractor”, a “site safety plan,” a “schedule of demolition work,” a professional engineer’s report for buildings three stories or higher, and verification that the contractor has “no active violations.”
• Mandatory site reviews before demolition begins.

Nutter also expressed interest in creating a separate licensing category for demolition permits and mandatory drug testing for contractors, but he’d need City Council’s help to push those through.