
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 21, 1995                   TAG: 9502210076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE RAZED, BUT FLAP REMAINS ON QUAIL LANE

Quail Lane residents took turns sneaking peeks at a Salem city front-end loader Monday morning. One resident spied from her porch, but Aubrey Moles ventured halfway up his narrow lane to watch the loader drop the broken remains of a condemned home into the belly of a truck.

"I just hope something constructive will come of it," Moles said.

Maybe not. The city and property owner John Orr are at a stalemate.

Salem City Manager Randy Smith said the city has done its job. It bulldozed the condemned house that stood in the middle of where Quail Lane should have been built.

But John Orr, who owns the property that the gravel half of Quail Lane now runs through, says that's not enough. About two weeks ago he put a chain across the road to get the city to realign Quail Lane along its proper route and demolish two homes on Robin Lane.

The city, Smith said, isn't budging.

"It would cost the city $120,000 to do what has to be done, and I don't have that money," Smith said. "We've come up a little short of solutions. I've talked to the residents, and right now I don't know of anything they can do. They'll have to use High Street."

As for the other part of Orr's deal - the homes on Robin Lane that Orr wants razed so he can develop the land he owns around them - Smith said they don't meet the city's requirements to be condemned.

Orr is undaunted. After all, the entrance to Thompson Memorial Drive that Orr's chain blocks cuts off access to Quail Lane's only fire hydrant. And in bad weather, High Street access to Quail Lane is a precarious journey.

"When [the residents] suffer enough they'll cry out to the city, and the city will do its job," Orr said. "They think I'm the enemy, but I'm helping them. ... The city will eventually pave it because it's their duty to put the road where it's supposed to be."

But the city doesn't own the land. The right of way for Quail Lane was drawn on maps by B&O Land Co, but the roads never were built. Eventually, 937 Quail Lane, which was bulldozed Monday, was built where the road was supposed to go.

"It's the worst legal nightmare I've ever seen," Smith said.

Smith said the eight property owners' only option now is to raise the money and pave the road themselves. If they build it, the city will maintain it.

"When I moved in here, if it had had only one way in I might have looked at it a little different," Moles said. "I don't know who's problem it is. I just want it resolved."

by CNB