As an excavator knocked through walls and ripped apart the roof, Elkridge residents watched the long-awaited destruction of an abandoned house.
“Would you want to live next to this?” said Barbara Hughes, who lives down the road from the decrepit home.
The small house on Aspern Drive has stood empty for at least three years, save for piles of garbage, snakes, foxes and other wildlife. The roof was sagging, the deck decaying. Grass, weeds and trees crowded the lot.
“She basically walked away from it, and never looked back,” Bob Frances, acting director of Howard?s Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits, said of the property owner, Marjorie Pope.
Flanked by single-story houses in Deep Run Village, the building had become a health and safety hazard, Frances said. Should it catch fire, the flames could easily wipe out neighboring houses, he said.
One neighbor, Glenna Webster, runs a day care two doors down and was concerned about the children?s safety.
“I?m just happy they?re taking it down,” said Betty Stewart, who has lived a few doors down on Aspern Drive for 17 years.
The county?s rental property code ensures rentals are maintained, but these rules don?t apply to owner-occupied properties. This makes it harder to get aresponse, Frances said.
Each year, about six to 12 houses are left abandoned, Frances said. Usually property owners comply with orders to clean up and this is the first house the county has torn down.
County officials took the matter to court. Pope was fined and arrested for failing to comply. She later forfeited the $10,000 she paid as bail, which covered the demolition, Frances said.
Contractors will spend two days clearing the property and then it will be up to Pope, who still owns it, to maintain the land, Frances said.
TIMELINE
March 2005: Howard?s inspections officials began enforcement.
June 2006: District Court Judge Alice Clark issued an $8,700 fine and ordered the house demolished. The property owner failed to comply, was later arrested and posted $10,000 bail.
July 2007: The county is given permission to destroy the house.
Source: Howard County government
