In an unusual step that county officials hope will jump-start improvements on a crime-ridden Anne Arundel County street, lawyers for the county Health Department are taking one of Severn's largest landlords to court today.

Mohammad Zuberi is accused of failing to correct violations of health and occupancy codes at 30 condominiums he owns along Arwell Court, a street that is the site of frequent shootings, drug activity and animal control violations. The street, part of the neighborhood known as Pioneer City, is within a designated state anti-crime HotSpot.

"This is a community in crisis, and this lawsuit is one small step that we can take and that we should take," county Health Officer Frances B. Phillips said. "It's not rocket science to fix broken windows. And yet it's a repeated pattern - it doesn't happen."

The lawsuit says that Zuberi has refused to comply with "numerous attempts" by county inspectors to get him to correct violations. The Health Department has written three letters to Zuberi about each property, indicating that legal action was imminent if he did not fix the violations.

Most homeowners fear such lawsuits and correct the violations after the first warning letter, said Assistant County Attorney Howard Nicholson, who is handling the case.

The department lawsuit, filed in District Court, also names Zuberi's wife, Lillemor, as a defendant because she co-owns 10 of the Arwell Court properties.

Health Department officials charged the Zuberis after the condominium association that governs Arwell Court asked their inspectors to conduct a general survey of all the homes on the street - something Nicholson says communities rarely seek.

Officials said that at least two other landlords who own property in Arwell Court are in violation of the county codes and will be taken to court.

Officials said it is the first time in at least six years that the department has launched such an investigation in one community.

In Zuberi's units, inspectors found rotting wood, peeling paint, doors that didn't lock and windows that had been broken.

Zuberi, of Ellicott City, said yesterday that the Health Department was unfairly singling him out. "I have done nothing wrong," he said.