Cardinal Hills / Maravilla saga continued ...

The Austin American Statesman is following up on the story:

Statesman Watch: Your Eye on Public Services

By Ricardo Gándara

·         

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.

"It is very frustrating," said Duncan, who has a vested interest is seeing the houses razed. He owns 30 other lots in the area but can't find buyers. "I'm negatively affected like other property owners."

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

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/western-travis-residents-sick-of-looking-at-half-2455964.html