Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 8, 1995 TAG: 9502080037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Quail Lane quagmire just got crazier.
One end of the Salem street - which was built in the wrong place - has been blocked off by the man who owns property that it crosses. A chain across the gravel road stops residents from entering from Thompson Memorial Drive.
Quail Lane veers off the public right of way and runs across lots that should be next to the street, not under it.
So John Orr, who owns one of those lots, is holding the street hostage. If Salem will take care of a problem on another street where he owns property, he will take the chain off Quail Lane.
"My plan is to get the city to do something," said Orr, who appears to have been at war with the city for a long time. "They haven't done anything in over 15 years."
Residents of the eight houses on Quail Lane are angry; they have access off High Street, but it's not as convenient or as safe during bad weather.
The city's confounded; the road runs across private property, so it's Orr's right to close it.
Acina Greene, who bought her house new two years ago, said she wants families on Quail to hire a lawyer together to look at their options.
"I'm really upset," she said Tuesday. "This is way, way out of hand. Had I even had an idea there would be a property problem, I never would have bought the house."
Resident Renee Evans said the city maintains the road across Orr's property, garbage trucks use it and the nearest fire hydrant is on the other side of the chain on Thompson Memorial Drive - so she wonders why the city can't do anything.
Besides the convenience, "when it snows, that's the only way you can get out."
The blocked exit is just one of Quail Lane's problems.
Imagine giving every builder in a subdivision conflicting surveys and telling them to go stake out their own lots. That gives a good picture of what happened on Quail Lane and the rest of what was once B&O Land Co. property between High Street and Thompson Memorial Drive.
Quail Lane is part of the 102-year-old subdivision staked out by B&O and filed in the courthouse. Over the years, lots were sold and houses built haphazardly throughout the subdivision. And even though no streets were built, they existed legally in the courthouse as "paper roads."
So while Quail Lane is built in the wrong place, there is a public right of way where it could be built. Except, there's a house in the middle of it.
Or so it seems. Because of less-than-competent land surveying 100 years ago, no one knows for sure where anything is on the old B&O property.
Nothing matches up from one survey to another.
"If you started at one end [of the B&O land] and did a legitimate survey, you'd probably end up 20 or 30 feet short of what the subdivision calls for," said Salem building official Jim Nininger.
"The city of Salem has no responsibility to it," he said. "The people who own that property maybe should try to get together and iron this out."
The neighbors would like to see the dilapidated house sitting in the middle of the right of way torn down and a paved road put in all the way to Thompson Memorial, which would solve the problem with Orr. The city has condemned the shack and another house next to it, and demolition is scheduled.
But, Nininger said, "Just because a house happens to be in the middle of the street ... the city has no authority to tear it down. It's up to the people who own the subdivision."
But the owners of B&O Land Co., founded in 1893, have all died. And the owner of the house refuses to claim it, since it's built in the street and not on his lot, which leaves the city with the cost of tearing it down. An asbestos study should be started next week to see if any special care must be taken in knocking it down.
Nininger also doesn't think the city should be responsible for building an expensive road on the right of way. If Orr and the other owners of the undeveloped lots want to build it, it would increase the value of their property, he said.
B&O has been a headache for the city just about forever.
"I don't know when or how it'll ever be clear," Nininger said.
Orr said the mess was allowed because the area, known as "Cat Hill," was considered a slum and the city didn't care much what was built there. Now that land is scarce in Salem, builders such as Quail Lane contractor Paul Wiley have been attracted to it.
What does Orr want in return for taking down the chain?
He wants the city to condemn two "shacks" on Robin Lane, on the other side of Quail Lane, so he can develop land he owns there. He owns 42 lots throughout the B&O subdivision and lives between Robin and Quail.
Orr said he'd gladly sell his lot on Quail, but not "till they carry out their responsibilities" on Robin Lane.
Nininger said this all boils down to a neighborhood dispute Orr has with the owner of the Robin Lane houses.
"I'm not anxious to pour any fuel on a neighborhood squabble," Nininger said. "It's a little neighborhood quarrel that's gotten out of control."
Orr has another bargaining chip at his disposal.
The city buried its waterlines along the improperly located Quail Lane, meaning they cross Orr's property.
"He could probably order the city to move the water lines," Nininger conceded. "As far as I know, there's no legal easement."
by CNB