A judge has ordered Frank Faris, owner of Genny’s Diner on Frankfort Avenue, to post a sign by Tuesday offering to give away — for free —the dilapidated 19th-century house he owns next to his restaurant.  At a court hearing Monday, Jefferson District Judge Sean Delahanty asked Faris if he was willing to comply, and Faris said: “I’ll give it away,yes sir.”

Faris was back in court after being given a month to find a new owner for the house at 2223 Frankfort or face going to jail. But John Taylor, Faris’s lawyer, said Faris was unable to sell it, auction it,  trade it for a city-owned property or donate it to a nonprofit organization —because no one he approached or who approached him was interested.

Faris was ordered to be back in court April 1.

He is being prosecuted by the Jefferson County Attorney’s office for failing to maintain the house, which he bought in 2001 to tear down for parking. He didn’t raze it for two years, however, and by then he wasn’t allowed to demolish it because the neighborhood had became a local preservation district.

Assistant County Attorney Nader Shunnarah asked again Monday that Faris be sent to jail, saying it would be an incentive for him to fix the house.

But Delahanty said he was looking for a solution.

Taylor said Faris would be willing to make basic repairs to the exterior and paint it, but Delahanty said that wasn’t a solution, either.

Faris has appealed the Metro Landmarks Commission’s ruling that said he could not raze the house, a case that’s now before the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

He also owes more than $75,000 in building code fines, which he also has appealed.
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