Baltimore County officials are almost halfway to their goal of acquiring all the blighted and crime-ridden apartment buildings in the Yorkway corridor of Dundalk that they plan to demolish and transform into new housing or a community park.
Members of the County Council next month will likely approve spending just more than $450,000 on two additional apartment buildings, bringing the total acquired so far to 26 of the 56 sought. The county has to persuade about 13 property owners to sell, said Shirley Murphy, chief of the county?s Bureau of Land Acquisition.
“Most everyone has been cooperative,” Murphy said. “We?re getting them for appraised value.”
Displaced tenants are being cooperative as well, said Mary Harvey, director of the county?s Office of Community Conservation, which has set up an office near Yorkway to help tenants relocate and pay for security deposits, moving expenses and utility connection fees.
Almost everybody in the first 20 buildings ? 79 units in a section formally known as the York Park Apartments ? has come into the county relocation office set up in the 8-acre Dundalk neighborhood, and most will be given vouchers to help pay rent anywhere a landlord will accept them.
“They will be able to move wherever,” Harvey said. “They are finding places and folks are accepting them as tenants.”
Though a few property owners have upped their asking prices ? one compromised on $800,000 after the county first offered $703,000 ? Harvey said the county is still on track to meet the $11 million budget slated for the entire acquisition. The county spent $7.6 million on the first 20 buildings and $800,000 for an additional four already.
Tenants will receive rental assistance for one more year and will get vouchers for new units by February 2007, according to a letter mailed to 80 units in April.
