PORT ANGELES — The wreckage of the landmark New Peking restaurant is one step closer to being removed, five months after burning to the ground.

A contractor hired by the owners of the property applied for a demolition permit last week, said Sheila Roark Miller, director of the Clallam County Department of Community Development.

The building has passed Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, or ORCAA, inspections for asbestos removal but still needs another state permit before demolition can begin, Miller said.

Before the county can issue the permit, which was applied for last Wednesday, and the bulldozers can get to work, the owners of the property at the 2416 E. U.S. Highway 101 must first get a state Department of Ecology permit to remove a septic system on the site, Miller said.

Owner Kevin Fong did not return several calls requesting comment about when demolition will occur or if the family plans to rebuild the pool hall.

The New Peking, known for the Chinese dragon murals on brick-red walls, burned to the ground July 5.

An attic electrical fire sparked the blaze, Clallam County fire investigators later determined.

Its empty shell has been fenced off since.

Miller and DCD staff have fielded about a dozen citizen complaints about the building’s condition and concerns about rancid food odors emanating from the structure, Miller said.

“I’d say that’s a pretty high number of complaints, probably mostly due to its visibility,” she said.

The 7,800-square-foot New Peking is about a mile east of the city limit and is passed by thousands of motorists a day traveling the main four-lane thoroughfare in and out of Port Angeles.

Concerns over the building’s impact on Port Angeles’ image also were expressed before Sept. 17, when dignitaries arrived in Port Angeles for ceremonies surrounding the removal of the Elwha River dams, Miller said.

The DCD, which posted a no-occupancy notice on the structure within days after the fire due to unsafe conditions and “looting and trespassing that is occurring,” also sent Fong the notice by certified letter, Miller said.

The pre-World War II-era building has housed restaurants, dance clubs, bars and, in its final years, was a Chinese restaurant, lounge and pool hall.

The New Peking, which was built in the late 1930s or early 1940s, was valued at $265,770 in 2009 for 2010 taxes, according to the county Assessor’s Office.

The 0.63 acres it sits on was valued at $203,490.

When Paul and Genevieve Fletcher built the Top Spot during World War II, it featured the “biggest dance floor west of Seattle,” their daughter-in-law, Joan Gill, told the Peninsula Daily News on July 6.

Helen Kullmann of Port Townsend and her husband, Dale, bought the business in 1971.

The Kullmanns sold it to Henry Yee, who named it Henry Yee’s Restaurant before the Fong family acquired it in 1985 and renamed it the New Peking.

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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.