Statesman
Watch: Your Eye on Public Services
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When Wes Mack steps out his front door, the eyesore across the
street an uninhabitable, unfinished house frustrates him.
For about six years, there has been no progress on the wooden
shell of a house with construction debris, trash and weeds covering the front
yard. A developer in Mack's Cardinal Hills neighborhood, off RM 620 in the
Lakeway area, stopped work on the house and four others and filed for
bankruptcy in 2008, Mack said.
Now, Mack and area land developer James Duncan want Travis County
Attorney David Escamilla and County Commissioner Karen Huber to condemn and
raze the houses.
"They're a hazard, unsafe, and they are bringing down the
property value of the whole neighborhood," Mack said. The area has many
picturesque, neatly manicured and expensive homes. But on Canary Street, where
Mack lives, and nearby Heron Drive, Meadowlark Street and Hummingbird Lane, the
five dilapidated houses mar the view.
Duncan was one of several investors who helped build roads and
infrastructure in the western Travis County neighborhood about 2005.
In early July, Duncan sent a petition signed by 18 affected
homeowners to Huber asking the county to condemn the properties, saying they
pose health and safety hazards. Mack said they are kindling for a fire.
The petition also asked the county to pursue "in-substance
foreclosure," a type of legal action that is possible when the original
debtor abandons a property and there is little or no equity accrued on it,
according to the petition. In July, Huber wrote affected homeowners that her
office was looking into the problem.
Duncan said one of the problems all along has been determining the
legal owners of the houses. According to the Travis Central Appraisal District,
the houses and lots are appraised at $53,000 to $65,000 and are owned by
individuals who live in Austin, California and Alaska. However, the property
taxes on each — about $1,000 annually — are paid by PNC Bank, headquartered in
Pittsburgh, according to the Travis County tax assessor-collector's office.
PNC did not return requests for comment.
The Cardinal Hills neighborhood, once known as Maravilla Hills,
has a troubled history. Duncan said that in 2006, he sold 40 lots to Primera
Homes and its owner, Michael Kelly, for development. About 35 homes were in
some phase of construction when Primera Homes filed for bankruptcy about 2007.
In 2008 the Texas Residential Construction Commission, a state
agency that no longer exists, banned Kelly from working in the residential
construction industry in Texas for 20 years, according to an American-Statesman
report at the time. The agency action cited Kelly and Primera Homes for
numerous violations, including misappropriating trust funds and using false
advertisements, according to the Statesman.
Kelly agreed to the disciplinary action and gave up his right to
appeal but did not admit to the findings, the Statesman reported.
Since July, neither Mack nor Duncan has received an update from
Travis County officials. Duncan did learn on his own through an open records
request that the county filed several notices of violations in 2010 for each
address for tall weeds and grass and for substandard structures, and they were
mailed to PNC. Also, one of the owners of record got a notice of violation for
failing to abate a public nuisance, which Duncan said refers to "a
building that is structurally unsafe."
Late Tuesday, however, Assistant County Attorney Gary Martin told
Statesman Watch: "We're on top of it and monitoring this closely. We are
in ongoing discussions with a lawyer representing PNC. PNC may take over the
properties."
He said the fix won't come fast because PNC, which has a lien on
the properties, must go through the legal process to become the owner.
"We consider the houses a health and safety issue,"
Martin said.
Contact Ricardo Gándara at 445-3632
Half-finished homes
The problem: Homeowners
say vacant, unfinished homes devalue their neighborhood
Who is responsible: Travis County's transportation and natural
resources and county attorney's departments
