An alley in Baltimore. Photo: Paul Sableman from St. Louis, MO, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Behind the rowhouses on Tioga Parkway in Northwest Baltimore, a row of old garages has become a test of how far the city can push owners to fix buildings they say they didn’t break.
The Department of Housing and Community Development has posted notices on dozens of damaged garages in the Parkway neighborhood, telling owners to repair them or the city will tear them down, WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates reported Tuesday. The notices also warn of fines and liens.
According to DHCD, 23 of the damaged garages sit along Titon Street, an alley behind one block of Tioga Parkway. Another 27 are behind a different block of Tioga Parkway, and seven more are behind Leighton Avenue. The city posted notices in June and August.
Owners blame the lot next door
Many of the Titon Street garages back onto a wooded lot, and residents told WBAL the trees there have been falling onto roofs and cracking walls for decades. Some garages are boarded up. Others have no roof or no door.
Monique Mollett said her mother has replaced the roof on her garage three times since the 1980s. “It shouldn’t be the residents of this neighborhood to continue to fix these garages that clearly are going to be damaged again, again and again,” Mollett told the station.
Neighbors said they complained about the lot for years and once took its owner to court. That owner has since died. The city has posted violation notices for the lot, but there is no one to receive them, and the property has piled up hundreds of thousands of dollars in liens, according to the report.
DHCD’s view of the trees differs from the residents’. The agency told WBAL that trees identified as dangerous were cut back and that the remaining trees are not considered hazardous, so they are not violations. Crews recently cleared some of the overgrowth from the alley, residents said.
What owners are paying
The notices give owners 30 days to make repairs, and some have moved quickly. Carolyn Carey filed an appeal for an administrative review, got estimates and spent $2,600 refurbishing her garage with a new frame and door. The city rescinded its demolition notice on her property.
Dietra Johnson also appealed. She said she paid $2,100 to remove a tree from inside her garage and was quoted about $15,000 to replace the roof and door. “I’m going to do it because I want to keep my property,” she told WBAL.
Other owners said they cannot afford repairs. Some garage owners have died, leaving the city to sort out who is responsible.
In a written statement, DHCD said it takes dilapidated vacant properties seriously and has “an established workflow for vacant garage complaints.” The agency said some owners have offered to donate their garages to the city, others have made repairs and several have asked for more time.
A councilman’s proposal
Councilman James Torrence, who represents the 7th District, said residents are being cited while a problem property next door has gone unaddressed. He told WBAL the lot owner’s estate owes more than $400,000 in liens, by his estimate, and that the city should find a legal way to acquire the land and deal with the trees.
The city already has a tool built for that kind of property. Through judicial in rem foreclosure, DHCD can foreclose on the liens on a vacant lot or building when the liens are worth more than the property’s assessed value, and take title to it.
For the garages, he suggested selling ones owned by people who have died to neighbors willing to buy and repair them, which he said would also bring in revenue. He also criticized the pace of DHCD’s legal division in handling cases and demolitions.
Not just Parkway
DHCD told WBAL it is also working on damaged garages in other parts of the city, including 16 behind Duvall Avenue and 45 in West Baltimore’s Edgewood neighborhood.
Residents who get a notice can request an administrative review, as Carey and Johnson did. Owners can look up notices on their own property and check registration records through the city’s online property search, and anyone can report an unsafe or dumped-on garage through 311.
Residents on Titon Street said dumping is its own problem. Trash and broken-down cars have collected around the empty garages, and neighbors said people come and go from them at all hours.
Helen Ashbury covers Baltimore for Voice of Baltimore.
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