Haunted by vandals and trespassers, most of the 23 abandoned buildings on the vacant half of Riverdale Village Apartments could be burned to the ground in training exercises by Baltimore County Fire Department, starting as early as next month.
One family remains among the 452 units on the vacant half of the decaying World War II-era Middle River complex on Eastern Boulevard. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development foreclosed on that part of the property last month.
That tenant will be gone in two weeks, county housing administrator Lois Cramer said.
While 300 apartments remain rented on the side of the complex owned by James Schlesinger, a New York landlord, county officials want to make sure the vacant half does not become an eyesore.
Vandals have begun unofficial demolition work, making off with more than 100 windows and other fixtures, and setting several small fires, officials say. By summer, however, officials say the vacant buildings could be cleared and the area ready for conversion to playing fields.
Assistant Fire Chief James Barnes said his department is eager to help, by burning or demolishing as many of the empty buildings as allowed for training. The Ruppersberger administration approved that plan yesterday.
Mary Emerick, eastern coordinator of the county Office of Community Conservation, said the federal Environmental Protection Agency wants to dismantle one of the buildings as part of a national project on recycling.
She said HUD, which has agreed to be responsible for the demolition, wants to ring its vacant portion of the project with chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, and close interior streets and patrol the area to keep out vandals and drug dealers.
But Essex Precinct police Capt. James W. Johnson warned that such a fence could make it harder for police and firefighters to respond to calls inside.
Police have received 150 calls to the complex in the past nine months, despite the declining number of residents, he said.
One legal obstacle to the county's demolition plan could be $196,500 in back property taxes that Schlesinger, who formerly owned that part of the complex, never paid. The county has no authority to forgive the debt, and HUD can't take clear title to the land until the taxes are paid. Without clear title, neither the burning nor other demolition can begin.
Going to the state legislature to have the debt forgiven would take too long, said County Attorney Virginia W. Barnhart, who has recommended that HUD pay the taxes. A HUD spokesman said no decision has been reached. Once the buildings are leveled and the ground is cleared, HUD plans to sell the land to the county for $1. It likely would be used as playing fields for several years, County Administrative Officer Merreen E. Kelly said, until the fate of the other half is decided and a development plan worked out.
Pub Date: 10/02/96
