A handful of nonprofit social service organizations have found quiet homes on the grounds of the former Crownsville Hospital Center in Anne Arundel County, but without help from the county or the state, they could be forced to relocate.
Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens and Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. April 18 to discuss the future of the Crownsville property and its current tenants. “The county executive is looking forward to the meeting with the governor and to coming to an agreement that will benefit the nonprofits,” said her spokeswoman, Rhonda Wardlaw.
The county does not have the estimated $25 million needed to bring the property up to code and make it habitable for new development.
The pastoral campus was home to a mental hospital for black patients for more than 100 years. But the property?s electrical and water systems are out of date, and most of the buildings, contaminated with lead paint and asbestos, need to be torn down.
“We cannot take control and ownership of the property without the state?s contribution to repair and rehabilitate the facilities,” said Bob Miller, county land use director. “The property wasn?t under our control when these buildings were left to get run down like this.”
If the county cannot find a way to take control of the property, the state has threatened to put it up for sale. The property is zoned for residential agricultural development.
The Arundel Food Bank, Hope House and Chesapeake PC Users Group are among the handful of small nonprofits that use buildings on the site for operations or storage. For Hope House, a residential drug treatment facility that serves indigent drug addicts, relocation would be a big challenge, said Peter D?Souza, the program?s director.
“We?re waiting for [Owens] to talk to the governor,” he said. “But I think it?s going to be bad publicity for anybody to kick us out of here.”
