Progress for residents frustrated with unruly student inhabitants of a Towson apartment complex won?t be thwarted after a fiery altercation spoiled an otherwise amicable meeting this week, the landlord said.
The Wednesday night meeting was the second for an informal task force, including representatives of the Riderwood Hills community, Baltimore County, Towson University and Continental Realty Corp., the owner and property manager of the Kenilworth at Charles and Donnybrook Apartment complexes. Several members stormed out after a dispute over a reporter?s presence, and CRC president J.M. Schapiro vowed to end the meetings.
He later said the task force mutually agreed to close the meetings to the media and felt mislead when Riderwood Hills community president Corinne Becker invited a reporter to the meeting.
“I?m extremely proud of everything our company has done to improve the situation,” Schapiro said in an interview Thursday. “There?s no doubt Kenilworth at Charles is in a much better place than it was just a few months ago.”
Schapiro said the company has terminated eight leases and instituted a zero-tolerance policy since the task force first met last month. At Wednesday?s meeting, he committed to adding parking spaces and security, privatizing trash removal and building a fence on his property.
But some residents, including Becker, called the efforts a “drop in the bucket” and said Schapiro must reconsider his tenants? demographics to make a significant difference. The residents? have pushed county officials to identify a code that regulates the number of tenants in an apartment unit ? which they say is important to ensure landlords aren?t cramming students into complexes designed for far fewer tenants.
“We have several elderly people that have been here their whole lives who are thinking about moving,” Becker said. “[Schapiro] needs to make it so it doesn?t impact us at all. We?re not willing to accept anything less.”
At least two former Republican council members said they recall tenant caps, but don?t remember specifically looking them up in the county?s code, which is available online.
P.J. Widerman, an employee of the county?s Office of Community Conservation and the county?s representative on the task force, said the county has never regulated apartment occupancy and county spokesman Don Mohler has previously said the county doesn?t intend to.
One Riderwood Hills community member said Becker is not giving Schapiro enough credit for his efforts. Madelyn Ball said she plans to resign her board member position over what she calls Becker?s adversarial comments.
“It was Corinne?s screaming who got us to the table and that was great,” Ball said. “Now it?s time to back off.”
