The owners of a Paradise residence and several members of the neighborhood argued at a hearing in Towson on Wednesday, Dec. 21, about the owners' plans to break the three-level house into apartments.
Janet Feuerstein and her long-time friend Paul Richards bought the vacant house on the 100 block of Cherrydell Road at the beginning of 2011 and finished renovations to the property, which included adding siding and windows and refurbishing the inside, in August.
One of the amenities that drew Feuerstein to the house, she said, was that it had separate living quarters on three levels, with a total of three bedrooms, three bathrooms, three electric meters and two kitchens, though only one of which has a stove.
Feuerstein planned to live on one level with her teenage daughter and rent the other two to her two grown children.
Asked her goal for the house after the hearing, Feuerstein said, "Just to have a place where, with this economy, I can instill responsibility in (my children) to have their own areas, but at the same time we're still in the same area."
Christina Weishaar, Susan Larsen and Clinton Moores, all of whom live in the area, argued the house should be brought back to code.
"I hope that the judge rules they have to reconvert it back into what the house originally was, whether it was a one unit or two unit," said Weishaar, a resident of Cherrydell Road for seven years, after the hearing. "Three units is not legal."
Larsen and Moores testified that the neighborhood has enough congestion and finding parking is difficult. They said a house with more adult residents than zoning allows would make the problem worse.
"Our concern is really for density, parking and sanitation issues," Weishaar said.
Richards, a contractor who did the renovations to the house, testified that part of his renovation included converting space behind the house into two parking pads.
He and Feuerstein agreed to change their plan to have three apartments after learning that arrangement violated Baltimore County code.
The pair requested permission to break the house into two apartments.
Event that would cost more in renovations, as staircase would have to be built between two of the floors, Richards said.
Currently, there is no access from one floor to another, Richards said.
A search through deeds and the Baltimore County Public Library failed to turn up records about the house's original design, Richards said.
Despite failing to find official documentation, Richards said he could tell by the house's construction that it never served as a single-family home.
Weishaar said even though it is unknown who broke the house up into three apartments, it is the owner's responsibility to bring it to code.
A ruling about the fate of the house is expected to the second week of January.