ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Last July, Ernest L. Baker watched as residents of historic Old Southwest trashed his proposal to tear down a house on Maple Avenue so its land and two adjoining lots could be sold for a medical office building.
Ultimately, both the Architectural Review Board and City Council denied Baker a demolition permit. They ruled the rundown house is architecturally significant, structurally sound and in a city historic district, where demolition should be a last resort.
Baker cannot demolish it without first making a sincere attempt to sell the house to someone who would preserve it, both the ARB and council ruled.
Under normal circumstances, those actions would prevent Baker from seeking another demolition permit for at least a year - unless he could prove that nobody wanted to buy the house at the market rate.
But Baker is seeking another demolition permit, an act some Old Southwest residents have called "an end run to thwart the orders of the ARB and council." The community group contends Baker already has given the cold shoulder to one potential buyer. Now, via an administrative zoning change, he may have priced it out of the market for others, they say.
City Council on Monday scheduled a public hearing on Baker's request for Jan.21 at 7 p.m. The demolition application request comes at a time when Roanokers are showing increasing sensitivity to demolitions:
* In November, a property owner tore down two houses in the Gainsboro historic district without ARB permission, an act that outraged residents of the mostly black community. City administrators believe those demolitions violated zoning laws.
* Three more houses on Dale Avenue Southeast were knocked down last week. Those structures didn't have the special protections that a historic district confers, but they were in an area local preservationists pegged "most endangered" in terms of the potential for loss.
* The city itself is making plans to tear down five buildings in the 500 blocks of Church and Luck avenues that taxpayers recently bought for $335,000. The soon to be vacant land will be used as part of a $1 million project to expand parking for city employees.
* In Southeast Roanoke, the Evangel Foursquare Church has in recent years torn down more than a dozen homes on Jamison and Bullitt avenues - virtually obliterating most of a residential block - to make room for expansion of the church.
Inner-city demolitions do more than leave a gaping hole where buildings once stood, said Evie Lander, a city planner. Unchecked, they can transform what planners call a neighborhood's "sense of place." The change can leave residents feeling unsafe on their own blocks.
"It's a fundamental planning principle that you want to maintain the fabric of an area," Lander said. "It's like a set of teeth: When you have a full set, you feel comfortable and stable; but when you lose parts of it, you start losing the function as a whole. Especially in inner-city communities, you really have to be careful about that, if you're going to continue to have investment in them and have them thrive."
The teeth metaphor is one that residents of Old Southwest used earlier this year in opposing Baker's bid to tear down the house at 422 Maple Ave.
The street hasn't lost a house since it was first mapped in 1919 - one of the few streets in the entire city where all the original structures are intact. Residents in July compared it to "a perfect smile," and called Baker's attempt to demolish the house the equivalent of knocking out a tooth.
After Baker lost that battle, a potential buyer contacted him in an effort to purchase the house and the lot it stands on, said Max Matthews, vice president of Old Southwest Inc., the neighborhood's community organization. The would-be buyer even had financing lined up for the purchase. Baker told her the house wasn't for sale at that time, Matthews said.
Next, Baker legally combined the formerly subdivided three lots into one parcel.
Now, Baker is seeking demolition permission again. Normally neither the ARB nor council would consider such an application more than once in a year. But Baker's attorney, Edward Natt, says this application is an entirely new one, because the two side lots now are included as part of the property, whereas before they were separate parcels, at least on paper.
The ARB turned the new application down at its Nov.14 meeting. Baker's appeal of that decision goes to council Jan.21.
"Not only [has the property not been put up for sale], but, using an end run to thwart the orders of the ARB and council, [Baker] has, without notice to Old Southwest or other interested parties, had the property [combined] with the apparent intent of placing its fair market value out of the reach of a serious potential buyer who, since early September, has eagerly desired to own and renovate the structure," Old Southwest President Paula Prince wrote the ARB in November.
Natt said Baker has never received a formal offer for the property.
"We haven't seen a written contract, a written offer, anything," Natt said. "There have been allegations [of a potential buyer], but I have not seen a contract."
Natt also denied that Baker combined the three lots into a single parcel to thwart anybody who might want to buy the house.
"It's his intent, and it has been from Day One, to sell that land as one piece of property," Natt said. "It's changed hands that way for at least 80 years."
If council denies the request again, Natt said, the property will go on the market. Baker will have up to a year to sell it at "fair market value," which is determined by a private appraisal. Natt said the appraisal has been done, but he declined to reveal what it shows the property to be worth.
"You will know, the neighborhood will know, and the citizens will know what that value is after council makes its decision and the property is offered for sale," Natt said.
If no buyer comes forward, the house will be torn down. At that time, the property may be sold for a physical therapy center, which is what Baker sought to sell it for earlier this year.
Baker is vacationing in Florida and could not be reached for comment.
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN Staff. Some Old Southwest residents sayby CNBErnest L. Baker is trying to run a legal loophole past City Council
to tear down this old house on Maple Avenue. color. Graphic: Map.