Council Member?s bill seeks to curb sluggish construction

One Baltimore County lawmaker wants to crack down on people who begin home improvement projects but never finish, creating unsafe and unattractive construction sites of idle machinery, dumpsters and untouched piles of plywood and sheet metal.

Members of the county council will vote Tuesday on a proposal to revoke building permits immediately if county inspectors determine abandoned or sluggish construction endangers the public health or safety. District 2 Council Member Kevin Kamenetz said he introduced the bill, which targets only single-family homes, after noticing steel beams on the yard of a 30,000- square-foot home under construction in his district.