Tall Trees

EVEN THE most careful preservation of the 105 buildings in the Tall Trees apartment complex won't make Essex a World War II equivalent of Colonial Williamsburg. When 53,000 people worked in the Glenn L. Martin Co. factories building the aircraft that helped to win World War II, there was a need for thousands of units of hastily built housing. That need no longer exists. Trying to preserve all these apartments is an exercise in economic futility. Labeling them "historic" won't change that.

Long before government visionaries unveiled an ambitious $50 million plan to create a waterfront tourist attraction on Baltimore County's east side, aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin presented his dream for the headwaters of Middle River. With World War II about to erupt, futuristic "Martinville" would have offered handsome accommodations for the workers from Appalachia and northern cities flooding the area to work in Martin's huge aircraft manufacturing plants. There would be 10,000 homes, a private college, a picturesque golf course and sports stadium, a sleek transportation hub for helicopters, trains and buses, and dual highways separated by landscaped greenways.

Another evening of anger and emotion over plans to condemn private property in Baltimore County took place at Kenwood High School last night, where about 75 residents shouted down county officials trying to sell the plan. "Ruppersberger is a liar," yelled Middle River retiree Frank Schwarzman, referring to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger. "This whole system is corrupt." Schwarzman, who lives in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Middle River, said the plan would force him to move from a home he has lived in and invested in for 25 years.

Facing nagging opposition in Middle River and Essex, Baltimore County officials attempted last night to make a more convincing sales pitch for a sweeping revitalization plan that would condemn houses, apartments and businesses so the properties could be sold to developers. Several hundred angry residents turned out to hear county officials explain the government's $50 million redevelopment project -- one that officials say would rejuvenate the east side's sagging economy. George Field, 55, whose home on Orville Road is in the area targeted for condemnation, was among the protesters.

With heart problems and diabetes, Paul Leucht has been looking for steady work since the late 1980s when the recession killed his printing business on Long Island.In 1989, he packed his wife and two sons in a car and headed south.The family ended up at The Villages of Tall Trees, a sprawling, gritty apartment complex in Essex. Now their home for the past two years is to be demolished as part of a $12 million revitalization effort by Baltimore County.Leucht and other tenants say the plan has them wondering how long they will have roofs over their heads and where they will go next.

The Baltimore County Council was told last night to keep its hands off funds that Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger plans to spend next year on schools but to slash the $12 million budgeted to buy and demolish the Tall Trees apartment complex in Essex.About 200 people attended a public hearing on Ruppersberger's proposed $1.7 billion budget at Loch Raven High School. More than half of the 96 people who signed up to speak stressed the need for increased school spending.Ruppersberger's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 calls for $74 million in spending increases and pumps millions into school repairs, community centers and fire and police stations.

Boosting Baltimore County's revitalization efforts, Gov. Parris N. Glendening has budgeted $2 million toward demolishing the Village of Tall Trees, a large apartment complex in the heart of the Middle River corridor.The money is included in Glendening's supplemental budget to help fund the county's purchase and demolition of the decaying community of 800 apartments built just after World War II along Back River Neck Road.The Tall Trees project is being pushed by Baltimore County officials as a crucial part of their 4-year-old effort to revitalize the Middle River corridor by developing homes, parks, restaurants and marinas.

In a move that would help revitalize Baltimore County's eastside, a development group is weighing a $10.8 million plan to buy and remodel a major portion of the Villages of Tall Trees, a World War II-era complex once known as the area's crime capital.The proposal by Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., which would cover 80 apartment buildings, is being hailed by county officials eager to revive an area that deteriorated as it lost thousands of well-paid industrial jobs."With a quality firm like Struever interested in the eastside, it's a signal things are improving," said Michael H. Davis, a spokesman for the county executive.

The transformation of Villages of Tall Trees, once a crime-ridden and dilapidated section of Baltimore County's Eastside, begins tomorrow with the dedication of four spacious condominiums, where a condemned apartment building once stood.The $60,000 units have been sold pending credit approval for buyers, and developers are prepared to close deals on three other buildings in the Essex complex, continuing the process of replacing renters with property owners."It's a major step in improving the area, bringing in homeowners," County Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, a 5th District Democrat, said yesterday.

The Villages of Tall Trees, a World War II-era apartment complex in Essex that in recent years has deteriorated into a bazaar of criminal enterprise and violence, would be transformed into a community of condominiums under an ambitious plan proposed by private investors to county leaders.A preliminary blueprint, discussed in several meetings, calls for developers to convert 80 of the 100 buildings into affordable three-bedroom condos, eventually eliminate hundreds of low-income rental units and bring stability to an area once recognized as the worst crime zone in Baltimore county.