INC NEWS - Neighbors mobilize to save house in Cleveland-Holloway

[Ken Gasch]

-----Original Message-----
From: ClevelandHollowayNeighborhood at googlegroups.com
[mailto:ClevelandHollowayNeighborhood at googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of Natalie
Spring
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:44 AM
To: CHneighborhood CHneighborhood
Subject: Herald Sun Article about us! Neighbors mobilize to save house in
Cleveland-Holloway


Thank you to Eric for keeping the bulldoziers/excavators at bay for a week!

Thanks to John Schelp in Old West Durham for forwarding the text.


Neighbors mobilize to save house
By Monica Chen, Herald-Sun, 13 March 2008

The prospect of another vacant lot in the struggling
Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood has mobilized
residents and renewed tensions between historic
preservationists and city officials this week.

The inciting event was the presence of a bulldozer
Tuesday morning in front of 407 Ottawa Ave., a 1920s
bungalow assessed at $43,603.

Neighbors had thought the house was up for repairs,
but a quick call to the property manager, attorney
Jack Walker, confirmed their fears. Ultimately, one of
the residents put up $900 of his own money for the
demolition crew to leave. Demolition has been put on
hold for a week.

"For the neighborhood, what's significant is that when
these houses are bulldozed, they become vacant lots
that can't be built on," said Natalie Spring, a
Cleveland-Holloway leader. "One of the problems we've
had in the neighborhood is because there are a lot of
vacant lots, there are fewer eyes looking at what's
going on."

The incident has brought back memories of when the
century-old 501 Oakwood Ave. house was put on the
demolition block by the city last fall and has
undermined, to some degree, the growing trust between
residents and the Neighborhood Improvement Services
department.

Residents are working with the city to expand historic
preservation in the area, located east of downtown
along Holloway Street. But the incident suggests there
is a communication problem with city departments at
best, according to the residents, and active
encouragement by the city to tear down buildings at
worst.

"The neighborhood feels like the NIS is encouraging
owners to tear down the building," Spring said.
"Obviously, the whole reason the house was going to be
demolished was because the NIS cited the owner."

NIS' mission is to ensure safe housing by enforcing
the minimum housing code. The department notifies
neighborhoods of homes that are up for repairs and
ones up for possible demolition.

Another agency, the Durham City-County Inspections
Department, actually issues permits for demolition.

Under city regulations, any house with renovations
costing more than 50 percent of its assessed value
could apply for demolition.

In an NIS notice to neighbors on Feb. 1, the house at
407 Ottawa was listed under "repair only," with a note
stating: "Owner would like to demo (pulling permits)."


NIS has cited the house for the following code
violations: no smoke detector, no screens on doors and
windows, holes and cracks in the ceiling, a new paint
job needed on the exterior and junk and debris in the
yard, among others.

The citations encourage owners to consider razing a
house, Spring said, which is easy to do since the
assessed values of homes are so low.

NIS Director Constance Stancil said the department was
simply doing its job and does not have the authority
to stop demolition by private owners. Further, the NIS
and the inspections department do not communicate on
demolition permits.

"I'm out in the community all the time and I work very
closely with people," Stancil said. "Whenever a
citizen wants to do something with their house, that
is beyond a city employee.... I can't do the rest of
my job if I have to track every demolition."

"We don't encourage anybody to demolish a house," she
added.

Residents said they also do not have the time to track
every potentially demolished house along with work,
family, and meeting other goals for
Cleveland-Holloway, like setting up a neighborhood
watch.

According to Walker, razing the $43,603 house was a
last resort. After the owner died in 2003, the house
went into a trust for descendants, with Walker being
the trustee.

"I had determined that I wasn't going to make the
repairs and upgrades that the city wanted because I
couldn't rent it and I couldn't sell it either. So my
only choice left was to demolish it," he said.

The house has been vacant for about two years and was
for sale for about a year, during which Walker did not
receive a single offer, he said.

That could change soon.

The demolition is on hold for a week to see if an
offer emerges, and Walker said he has heard from
various neighbors who are interested. The incident
also has attracted the attention of preservation
groups.

"When you lose another house in the middle of a block
like this, it really has an effect on the
neighborhood," said Cathleen Turner, director of
Preservation North Carolina in Durham.

"The loss of another moderately priced house that's
close to transportation and the downtown area is
really a detriment to the character of the
neighborhood, and what a lot of the neighbors are
trying to do there . . . is to stabilize the
neighborhood and encourage homeownership," Turner
said.



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