ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250005
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
A "PERFECT SMILE'' is how one resident described the 1400 block of Maple Avenue in Old Southwest. For now, at least, its teeth will remain intact.
In a reassuring message to residents of Old Southwest, City Council has unanimously denied a landowner's bid to demolish an old home on one of the last intact blocks in the historic neighborhood.
The vote last week, however, doesn't necessarily mean that 1422 Maple Ave. is safe from the wrecker's ball forever. Under a city law that is supposed to protect historic districts, if the house goes on the market and nobody offers a reasonable price for it in the five months, the owners could still tear it down.
Ernest L. Baker and Maple Avenue Associates want to make a vacant lot out of the property, which is sandwiched between two other vacant lots the partners also own.
But the Architectural Review Board denied a demolition permit by a unanimous vote May 9, and Baker and his partners appealed the ruling to City Council.
Attorney Edward A. Natt, who represented the property owners, argued the house is dilapidated and it would cost $40,000 for exterior work alone, not including many renovations that are needed inside. The house and lot are assessed for $28,900.
Baker and his partners want to knock it down so they would have three vacant lots in a row to make the property more salable to developers, Natt said. A larger tract would be more suitable for a new building, similar to a nearby physical therapy center.
"All three of these lots need to be marketed together to make it a viable piece of land," Natt told council.
Natt also said the house is not so unusual that its destruction would harm the Old Southwest historic district, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Old Southwest residents disagreed.
Tommy Dowdy, who lives on Maple Avenue and has owned and restored a number of homes in the neighborhood, said the street hasn't lost a house since 1919, when it was first mapped. Dowdy said the property hasn't been up for sale for at least the last 14 years.
``[Buildings like the physical therapy center], that's what we're trying to eliminate in Old Southwest," Dowdy said. "If that property's offered for sale at a reasonable price, an investor would jump at it and it would sell."
Max Matthews, another Old Southwest resident, used the dental analogy.
"To tear it down would be knocking a tooth out of someone's perfect smile," he said.
Ken Motley, chairman of the Architectural Review Board, said the board unanimously agreed that tearing the house down would be detrimental to the district.
Council didn't quibble in its decision.
"I understand the owners' position," Councilman Jack Parrott said. "But my own grandfather's house right around the corner was torn down a few years back to put up one of the ugliest buildings in history, on Second Street."
Natt said during the hearing that if council didn't approve, the house would be put on the market and torn down later if it doesn't sell.
A city law limiting demolitions in the historic district requires property owners to attempt to sell their property before tearing it down if the city initially refuses a demolition permit. The length of time the owner must offer it for sale varies according to its value.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Ken Motley, chairman of the city'sby CNBArchitectural Review Board, says the board unanimously agreed that
tearing down the house on Maple Avenue Southwest would be
detrimental to the historic district. color. Graphic: Map by staff.
color.