Two construction cranes rise above heaps of rubble in Dundalk's Yorkway neighborhood, the first signs that something better could be coming to what has long been a pocket of violence and decay.
It's a dreary place, one where a drug debt was squared by executing a woman as she pleads for her life in an alley. Now the Baltimore County government wants to clear the entire area and rebuild it from scratch -- so badly, in fact, that elected officials are talking about defying what has become a political taboo. They might seize private property -- and sell it to developers -- in the cause of economic development.
Many localities across the nation have used condemnation to make way for private development, and the practice has been upheld by the Supreme Court. But it would be a significant change of course in Baltimore County, where a similar proposal known as Senate Bill 509 was voted down -- and where as recently as a year ago the county executive declared the idea out of the question.
"Time changes a lot of things," said former state Sen. Francis X. Kelly. "For them to do this, knowing what happened politically in the past, they must feel pretty strongly that it's the right thing for them to do. It's a risk."
The renewed discussion of using eminent domain powers was prompted by county officials' frustration in negotiations with Yorkway property owners.
Council members raised the possibility of condemnation last week after the county government agreed to purchase a Yorkway parcel for twice its appraised value. And as the government negotiates with three remaining landlords in Yorkway, a spokesman for County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said he is no longer ruling out the tactic.
In the county's condemnation process, a jury decides the value of a parcel of land, and officials trust that the jury's price would be lower than the amount demanded by the owner.
Smith's spokesman, Donald I. Mohler, said officials know that condemnation is a sensitive issue but that all options will be considered to ensure that the $17.2 million Yorkway project moves ahead. "We have a deep and abiding respect for property rights," Mohler said. But there must be limits on the spending of taxpayer dollars, he said. "We have reached that limit at Yorkway."
The county has bought 46 buildings in Yorkway and hopes to buy about 10 more. Once all the properties are acquired, the county plans to sell the 8-acre tract to a developer for new housing. No specific plans for the property have been drawn up.
Built in 1944, the complex once served as inexpensive postwar housing. By the late 1980s, the neighborhood began to decline, becoming a drug haven. County officials say police responded to hundreds of calls a year there.
In 1999, then-County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger announced plans to bulldoze the neighborhood, a day after a woman was shot to death in an alley as frightened neighbors looked on. Prosecutors later said a Dundalk man agreed to forgive a $10,000 debt if a 16-year-old youth shot the woman, who allegedly cheated the man in a drug deal.
The county has condemned land for public uses such as roads, acts that are generally considered routine government business.
But Ruppersberger's proposal in early 2000 called for the county to condemn large swaths of older neighborhoods in the eastern and western parts of the county, including Yorkway, to make way for new development. He lobbied the General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow the county to condemn a long list of properties.
Almost immediately after Senate Bill 509 passed, residents began to mobilize. They collected 44,000 signatures -- enough to bring the issue to a referendum on the November ballot.
"It was a small group of citizens ... people fighting for their homes and their families, against, if you will, county government," said James F. Ports Jr., then a Republican state delegate who helped lead the referendum drive. "It was politically the biggest thing I did, politically probably one of the biggest things for the county."
Ruppersberger, a Democrat, agreed to a series of debates with Ports -- and was jeered at them.
Ruppersberger, now a member of the House of Representatives, said one of his biggest errors was not meeting with landowners before including their properties in Senate Bill 509. "The intentions of 509 were to help a neighborhood in distress," he said in a phone interview last week. "It was not about taking people's homes throughout the county. But that was my mistake with losing control of the issue."
Voters defeated the proposal by a margin of more than 2-to-1.
Nationwide, municipalities in recent years have threatened or filed condemnations against thousands of properties slated to be transferred to private parties, according to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm.
Lawyers with the institute represented homeowners in a 2005 Supreme Court case that involved an attempt by the government of New London, Conn., to turn a waterfront area into a multimillion-dollar commercial center.
The court held in a 5-4 decision that the city government could condemn the properties, saying that promoting economic development is a constitutionally permitted "public use." The decision was widely criticized as a gross violation of property rights.
Baltimore had been using condemnation for redevelopment projects, including the Inner Harbor, and has used its "quick take" condemnation powers for other projects. But twice this year, the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, has ruled in favor of individual property rights over the city's use of quick take, which allows jurisdictions to take immediate title to a property.
In Baltimore County, Smith, a Democrat first elected in 2002, said after the New London ruling that he would use condemnation only to acquire land for public purposes, such as a park.
"The Baltimore County voters have trumped the Supreme Court," Smith said at the time.
Last July, Smith announced plans to condemn the former site of a Shell station near the Towson roundabout to make way for a park, with Mohler saying that the executive did not support taking land for economic development.
The issue resurfaced last week, after the county agreed to buy less than two-tenths of an acre for $350,000 -- more than double the county's offer of $170,000.
Councilman T. Bryan McIntire, the only member of the panel to vote against the purchase, said the deal sets a bad precedent.
"Condemnation exists to permit government to go to a court when people cannot agree on a price or won't be reasonable. Why the administration shies away from that, I don't know," said McIntire, the council's only Republican. "The government is not here to be held up."
Dreama Cavoures, whose husband owns a four-unit apartment building on another Yorkway lot, said the county offered the couple $187,000 for the property 18 months ago. She said the offer is not enough to compensate for the income they would receive from renting out the building.
"This is my livelihood that keeps me with my children," said Cavoures, a stay-at-home mother of two teens. "It's not just the price of the building and the price of the land. It's what I'm going to be losing in the next 10 years in income to put them through school and college."
Baltimore County officials declined to discuss negotiations with property owners, but they said they believe they have contacted Cavoures more recently than 18 months ago.
Attempts to reach two other property owners in negotiations with the county were unsuccessful.
Bradley Wallace, an Essex resident who took part in the fight against Senate Bill 509, said the threat of condemnation gives the government an unfair advantage over property owners like Cavoures.
"You can't negotiate when there's a gun to your head," Wallace said. "The police do it, they call it duress. The county does it, they call it condemnation.
"If a person buys property for investment," he added, "they should be able to get out of it what they want."
He said that once the county starts using condemnation to achieve revitalization, the tactic might be used too casually.
But many neighborhood leaders have longed for the day when Yorkway would be gone. Ports, the former state delegate who opposes the use of condemnation for economic development, said Yorkway was one of two precincts that voted in favor of the proposal in the referendum on Senate Bill 509.
Kelly, the former state senator, said condemnation should be a government's last resort.
"People's rights to own property are so important and so protected by the Constitution," Kelly said. "It can't be abused or used at somebody's whim."
josh.mitchell@baltsun.com
Timeline
January 2000: County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger proposes an initiative to grant Baltimore County the authority to condemn property in Essex, Middle River, Dundalk and Randallstown as part of revitalization plans. Senate Bill 509 is later passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
Nov. 7, 2000: In a referendum, Baltimore County voters strike down Senate Bill 509 by a margin of more than 2-to-1.
June 26, 2005: In Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court affirms the right of local governments to use eminent domain for private economic development.
July 2005: County Executive James T. Smith Jr. says Baltimore County will not use eminent domain to acquire property in the Yorkway area of Dundalk or any other neighborhoods slated for redevelopment, despite the high court's decision. "Baltimore County voters have trumped the Supreme Court," Smith said.
March 27, 2006: Baltimore County officials announce that they have reached an agreement to buy a blighted apartment complex in Yorkway for $7.5 million, a key step in plans to revitalize the area. Officials say the county is negotiating to buy the remaining 36 buildings in the 8-acre area.
Last week: The Baltimore County Council approves the purchase of a Yorkway parcel for $350,000 - more than double the appraised value. At least three council members, including Councilman T. Bryan McIntire, the only member to vote against the deal, raise the possibility of the county using eminent domain powers.