Don't forget to remove the meth lab first.
I am a retired State of Florida licensed plans examiner and Lifesafety Inspector, and also other qualifications, dealing with issues such as you're facing. Since you're dealing with issues under Florida Statutes, my perspective is congruent with your present situation.
As an assistant fire marshal in Florida, I took a course in meth labs recognition, mitigation, and legal aspects. It was given by a Louisiana-Monroe LEO who had a FEMA federal contract to travel across the country to present the program to fire jurisdictions. It was one of the best programs I've attended in the fire service, and I've been to a lot of them, as a Fire Service Instructor III and assistant professor of EMS. He had to travel with a notarized letter from the DEA because he was literally travelling on airlines with a portable meth lab, and the components had enough residue on them to alert a trained drug-interdiction dog he might encounter.
There was so-much content, it's beyond my intent to use that to address the thread here. To begin:
Do not remove the meth lab!!
The federal government has clean-up crews who specialize in this process, taking-down methamphetamine production sites all across the country. The local AHJ contacts DEA, and DEA send-out the clean-up crew. Remember, if the local PD or FD begins disassembly, it's going to continue and on their dime. "Who's the RPO of this parcel?" Guess who they're going to be billing! An interesting fact, at the time I took this class, the only state in the USA allowed to do their own disassembly and mitigation was the State of Missouri, which says something about the frequency of such illegal operations to be found there.
We were shown LEO video camera footage of traffic stops turning into blazing gun battles with methamphetamine trafficers, mobile labs like in Breaking Bad, and some which were much-more insidious. You can have a portable meth lab in a 1 gallon Igloo plastic cooler container, or a 2 liter soda bottle, capable of turning out $1,500 of methamphetamine in a few days. One of the videos showed a nighttime stop by a LEO who decided he wanted to use his sense of smell to detect something illegal in a Igloo insulated container, as described above. Yes it was a portable methamphetamine container, with a batch 'cooking,' and after he used his proboscis, putting it in a place it shouldn't have-been, he threw-away the container, allowing it to spill its contents on the open trunk and the ground (haz-mat site!) and probably onto his uniform and body, from the splatter. That one careless error on his behalf caused him a permanent disability as it damaged his lungs. These types of things are nothing for untrained, ignorant registered property owners to attempt. A word to the wise... .
Just because you are the current owner and want it down does not mean the city will agree and issue you the required demolition permit. Most cities do not like vacant lots and short of an engineer’s report declaring the current building a hazard it seems unlikely will issue a permit. As old is it is seems likely you may also be in a historic district with extra regulations.
Walta
"Many cities do not like vacant lots,,," is a statement with which I will take issue. Land development code regulations and ordinances are in the category of 'shall issue.' If your proposed plan meets those criteria, the AHJ must issue the necessary permits to allow you to exercise your land development rights. The Second Amendment people are probably familiar with this language in states where it applies for firearms licensing. If you want to build a structure this week, and demolish it next week, you are exercising your land development rights. Oh, they can complain about losing increased taxation due them because a developed parcel generates more taxes than an undeveloped site, but if you're removing a decrepit structure which had been condemned as a public nuisance, an unsafe structure, and a place where habitation by criminals or vagrants, where multiple police calls for drug use and fire alarms for structure fires, the need to protect the residents and visitors to the community, and adjacent/near-by occupancies is going to make it an easy time of rapid processing the parcel for demolition.
In the jurisdiction I worked as a firefighter-paramedic, there was a row of homes on one street which was rental housing. The homes were single-story attached apartments and we were constantly in them for rescue calls, the PD was in there for drug sales and use, and it was a trouble-spot for years. The RPO would evict one set of criminal tenants, and another set would move-in. One factor in their existence that kept them periodically refurbished was that they were Section 8 low-income housing.
The municipality finally had-enough. The went through the courts, and one day, the heavy equipment came-in and levelled the parcels with the 'problem' occupancies. The city put together some contiguous parcels and a new development was done for affordable housing. The kicker was that the RPO all this time was a State of Florida Congress member.
If you take a look at my prior post, you will see that I mentioned most of what content many others put in their contributions. A preponderance of the evidence continually emphasizes what you are facing. I think you want to do the right thing here, and you're to be commended for wanting to do things with economy in-mind while following regulations. Getting someone whom you can trust who you know has the proper licensing to help you navigate the land development code may be the wisest money you ever-spend on this.
Remember, if you have questions, ask them of the AHJ and don't be afraid to ask for citations on a particular matter. As is often heard to be said by the plans review people, "we're not going to teach you the code, get a professional and hire them." But you can ask for a determination letter to settle a specific question you may have about a decision handed to you by a plans examiner from whatever department (typically structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, engineering, or zoning) and it may cost you staff time, and that fee should be somewhere in the AHJ code of ordinances, so you proceed to the end result you want, and are entitled to under the land development code.
