The scheduled demolition of a Laurel building was halted Dec. 15 after local residents complained the county did not provide them with enough advance notice or opportunity to discuss the plan.
The building, a two-story structure built of stone and pinkish tan brick, sits at the intersection of Old Scaggsville and All Saints roads. For more than a year, county officials have discussed tearing it down to clear the sight line at the intersection, where a sharp curve requires drivers turning right from All Saints Road to inch out past a stop sign in order to see oncoming traffic.
But when a press release from the county went out on Dec. 11 announcing demolition of the building, residents said they were taken aback.
Jacquie Sentell, who lives in the High Ridge community up the street, quickly dashed off an email to Councilwoman Jen Terrasa, a Democrat who represents the area and alerted residents to the demolition on Dec. 12.
"I just read what the press release says ... and your email out to the High Ridge residents... stating that you didn't want the press release to come as a surprise," Sentell wrote. "WELL IT DID! [Three] Days [sic] notice. No time for us to act."
Others chimed in, emailing Terrasa with requests to stay the demolition.
By Monday afternoon, Dec. 15, the councilwoman informed residents that county officials had decided to hold off on the project until concerned neighbors had a chance to share their thoughts.
Terrasa said she, too, had been surprised by the announcement.
"I sent the press release out to the community because I wanted to make sure they all saw it," she said. "I think the timing just threw folks off."
Terrasa added, however, that the intersection's current configuration is unsafe.
"It's not a great intersection," she said. "The intent here is to make it safer, and there can be a discussion about how to make it safer, and I think we can all come together."
Both Terrasa and Jim Irvin, director of the county's Department of Public Works, said they had been in touch about setting up a community meeting, which Terrasa said would likely happen in the new year.
Sentell, who serves as the vice president of the Howard County Citizens Association, said she understood the county "needs to make progress and needs to do things. But, she added, "they also need to take into account the neighbors' feelings."
Sentell, who has lived in High Ridge for 52 years, said her corner of the county is changing fast, and the proposed demolition is just one example.
"The community kind of feels that they keep coming in and changing everything about our community, tearing down things without us being aware of it and basically changing our history here," she said.
Just up the street from the vacant building, a development slated to bring more than 100 homes and town houses to the area is underway.
Some residents, including Sentell, have pointed out that the building is more than a century old: Tax records show it was constructed in 1900. Residents said the building, which according to the county's planning and zoning department is zoned for residential use, had been used as a grocery store for many years before being turned into a beauty parlor. It has sat vacant for at least a year.
In Sentell's view, "they're taking away our identity. They're trying to say we want you to be something else."
Howard County Citizens Association President Stu Kohn doesn't live in the area, but he said he was concerned about the demolition because he has not heard the county's plans for the property after the building is gone.
"The house itself — let's put it this way, it doesn't stand out as something spectacular like a Belmont or Montpelier, but they tell me it's historic," he said. "What concerns me is, when you buy something you should have an idea as to how you're going to utilize it."
Tax records show the county bought the building from Souder Builders Inc. in May 2013 for $325,000. Terrasa said Howard officials decided to jump on the property when it went up for sale, because "the idea was if that property ever went up for sale, you wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to make it safer."
She said she also wanted to avoid seeing a subdivision – many of which have been built in the neighborhood in recent years – crop up at the intersection.
According to Irvin, the county is still in the process of deciding what to do at the intersection after the building comes down, if it is demolished.
"We haven't really made any decisions yet, so that's the next phase and it has to be a community process to see what's the most acceptable and works and that we have enough land," Irvin said.
Joanne Graf, another longtime resident who lives on All Saints Road, within eyesight of the building at the intersection, said it should be demolished.
"I think it's an eyesore and a safety issue," she said.
She is, however, concerned that the county will build a traffic circle at the intersection, which she said would be a "disaster" for the sloping road.
"In the wintertime, the amusement for myself and my husband is to watch people try to go up the road" in the snow, she said. Often, cars can't climb the hill and have to reverse back down the street. Graf and Sentell both said that would be complicated by adding a traffic circle into the mix.
"I would rather see a three-way stop or something like that" at the intersection, Graf said.
Irvin said the county would not decide on how to improve the intersection until after a traffic study was conducted. He said a study would likely start early next year, in late winter or early spring.