ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
CITY COUNCIL sided against a homeowner's appeal to raze the dilapidated building.
If Earnest Baker doesn't sell 1422 Maple Ave. in Old Southwest, he's going to have to wait at least a year before he can tear it down.
So says City Council, which on Tuesday night denied Baker's renewed request for permission to tear down the old house on one of the few intact streets in the historic district.
By a 6-0 vote, the council denied Baker's appeal of an earlier decision by the city Architectural Review Board.
The house sits on the middle lot of three contiguous lots he owns on Maple Avenue between Franklin Road and Jefferson Street, about a block away from Roy Webber Highway.
Baker last year sought to raze the house. When the ARB denied him a demolition permit, he appealed to City Council. Last July, council denied the appeal and ordered the house appraised and put on the market.
Under the historic district ordinance, Baker could tear the house down if he does not get an offer at fair market value after a certain length of time.
But the house wasn't appraised or put on the market. And Baker ignored entreaties to sell from Eileen McCall, who detailed her efforts in a letter to council dated Tuesday.
Instead, last summer Baker had the three properties combined into one parcel. That put it out of McCall's price range. He has since had it appraised, and no one has offered him fair market value for the property, his attorney Ed Natt told council. Natt refused to say what that appraisal shows the fair market value is.
Natt told council that the historic district wasn't in existence when Baker bought the property in 1985. If it had been, Baker or his company, Maple Avenue Associates, probably wouldn't have bought the property, the lawyer said.
Natt also argued the neighborhood already has seen significant new development within its boundaries, and that the rundown condition of the large house actually detracts from the character of the historic district.
Opposing the demolition request was a representative of the Architectural Review Board and members of Old Southwest Inc., the neighborhood group that has acted as a preservation vanguard since the historic district was created.
Architect Don Harwood, who sits on the review board, said tearing down 1422 Maple would "leave a void within the streetscape."
Max Matthews, Old Southwest vice president, called Baker's request a "deliberate attempt on the part of Maple Avenue Associates to defy council's wishes and proceed with demolition."
In casting his vote, Mayor David Bowers said he was "a little disturbed that an effort has been made to thwart the previous intention of the law. If a loophole in the law now exists, I hope [City Attorney Wilburn Dibling] will find it and bring it to us so that we can close it."
Councilman Jack Parrott noted that no law prevents the property from being bought by somebody else and divided into three parcels again. A new owner could then sell off the adjoining lots, he noted, bringing the net price of 1422 Maple down to a reasonable level.
Paula Prince, president of Old Southwest, said she was encouraged by that idea.
"I hadn't thought of it that way, to [redivide the land]," Prince said. "It very well might save the house. I was delighted Mr. Parrott thought of it."
Natt said the house will be marketed through a licensed real estate agent.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Architect Don Harwood, who sits onby CNBthe Architectural Review Board, said tearing down the home at 1422
Maple Ave. in Old Southwest would "leave a void within the
streetscape.''