The city zoning board cleared the way yesterday for completion of the $250,000 city-financed rehabilitation of two Little Italy rowhouses.
Housing officials had ordered work stopped on both houses in late February after discovering that one lacked required approval for the four apartments that were being constructed there.
The houses are owned by Pascal Rose Development LLC, a corporation formed by Rosa Aquia, the 73-year-old mother of Gia Blattermann, a former zoning board member with close ties to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. Blattermann's husband, Albert J. Blattermann, works for city housing chief Daniel P. Henson III at the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.
Aquia's request to have four apartments at 227 S. High St. was rejected in February -- after rehabilitation was well under way -- because city records showed it had been a single family house for decades. The board accepted Aquia's assertion -- bolstered by witnesses -- that the house had contained four apartments before 1971 when the current zoning law was passed. That law grandfathered so-called nonconforming uses in existence when the ordinance was adopted.
Pub Date: 4/01/98
