Ed Leicht came to William Faber’s Holly Neck Road boarding house for the same reason everyone else did — he was out of options.

The 76-year-old retired musician had been living with his wife at her sister’s home nearby. Last year, around Christmas, his wife died, and his sister-in-law immediately sold the house. The Leichts had funneled most of their savings into fixing up that house. His three grown children had families and pets of their own, and he didn’t want to burden them. He couldn’t afford area rents on his Social Security check, or find a subsidized program for him and his beloved dog, Chloe, and cat, Lola. He lived in limbo for two months until his daughter saw the “For Rent — Seniors Preferred” sign on the door and called the number.

“Without this place, I’d be on the street,” Leicht said. “This is all I need. It’s clean, modern, and everything is up to date.”

But neighbors in the quickly gentrifying Essex peninsula contend Faber’s boarding house is an illegal nuisance that Baltimore County should have shut down in 2008, when a former county councilman changed the zoning to forbid boarding houses. Since then, the boarding house has become what is known as a “non-conforming use,” out of compliance with the zoning law but allowed to remain. That makes the boarding house both illegal and legal, depending on who you ask. Later this month, a panel of zoning experts will determine which it is.

A property used for something other than what the zoning allows is not unusual in Baltimore County; county officials do not keep a list of nonconforming properties, as owners don’t have to alert county officials about zoning changes. County code enforcement is, by its nature, reactive; inspectors only respond when someone complains.

And yet, the zoning code, and the frequent exemptions to it, reflect obstacles to creating affordable housing that is also safe. In 2016, Baltimore County agreed to create 1,000 affordable housing units by 2027 as part of a resolution of a 2011 federal housing complaint. They are not there yet, and closing operations like Faber’s will make it that much harder.

Residents of the Rockaway Beach, Turkey Point, and Holly Neck peninsulas, as well as the marina next door to the boarding house, have asked the Baltimore County Zoning Board of Appeals to rule the use illegal and ultimately shut down the boarding house. Faber, who is 82 and lives in the Philippines, is fighting equally hard to keep open the property his father built in the 1940s, when the area consisted of low-slung crab shacks catering to steelworkers.

“The county knew it wasn’t in compliance. But nobody did anything. Everybody seemed to turn a blind eye to it,” said Kevin McDonough, president of the Rockaway Beach Improvement Association. “The county failed the community miserably with regard to this property. It’s shameful.”

‘Faber’s Yacht Club Inn’

William Faber Sr. bought the Holly Neck Road property in 1948 and built a bar, a store and a family kitchen. He added five rooms upstairs for extra income. The bar, known as Faber’s Yacht Club Inn, was a honky-tonk; Leicht remembered that his country band performed there in the 1970s.

Over time, father and son added more rooms. At one time — the zoning record does not specify when — the county deemed the property unfit for habitation, but let the Fabers rent it again once they fixed various violations.

After Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003 destroyed many neighborhood waterfront cottages, some old-timers sold to newcomers, who built bigger homes. The boarding house did not fit into their manicured aesthetic, with its junk cars parked outside and boisterous, profanity-laced arguments around the back grill. As neighbor Amy O’Toole told the administrative law judge, “It’s embarrassing when I have to tell people, you know, ‘Oh, we live right behind the boarding house.’”

From 2000 through September 2024, county records show, area residents called police 573 times about issues ranging from overdose deaths to burglaries, assaults and welfare checks. The address was a regular spot on the routes of code enforcement inspectors, too. Claims ranged from trash and untagged vehicles to a neighbor living in a van — occasionally naked, urinating in bottles and siphoning electricity from one of the units.

The marina owner next door reported that a woman at the boarding house propositioned one of his employees. Faber and his maintenance man, Stan Love, acknowledged some of those problems at the hearing, and said they have fixed the violations and now require background checks for all tenants, preferring senior citizens.

In 2008, two dozen neighbors, including Kathy Filar, convinced then-County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder to rezone the property to a classification that prohibited boarding houses. Filar and her neighbors believed that once the boarding house was out of compliance with the property’s zoning, the county would shut it down.

“They cannot run a boarding house, and they continue to attempt to run a boarding house. It continues to be illegal,” Filar, vice president of the Holly Neck Community Association, told zoning commissioners.

But instead of appeasing his neighbors, Faber added more rooms, bringing the total to 18. He eventually moved to the Philippines full-time and hired Love, a former tenant, as manager. Faber told the lawyers at his hearing that he only flies back when he needs to show up in zoning court, as he did last month. Love is usually onsite every other day, he told the zoning board, but at age 75 he can’t complete all the repairs. The pandemic also set the property back as the law wouldn’t allow Love to evict problem tenants, and Faber suffered financially because tenants refused to pay.

Conforming to the law

County zoning officials do not like “non-conforming uses,” according to Les Pittler, a retired Baltimore County zoning attorney. If fire consumes the structure, the nonconforming designation could forbid rebuilding to what the structure was; insurance rates could rise. Yet, as long as the owner does not cease operations for more than a year, or alter the footprint, the county views the “illegal” use as legal.

“If you use it for X before the zoning, you can continue to use it for X for ad infinitum,” Pittler said.

In the 1970s, Pittler chaired a county commission to change the comprehensive zoning process to allow more public participation. The County Council implemented all of the recommendations. Putting a sunset clause on the nonconforming use never came up, Pittler said. Nor, he added, did anyone address a limit to the number of years that a nonconforming use was permitted while he was the county’s director of community development, working closely with zoning.

While the county routinely updates its code enforcement laws — recently it passed one to make it easier to tear down vacant structures — Pittler said there’s never been any appetite to amend this one. Baltimore County law office officials did not return an email seeking comment.

Some nonconformers go before the zoning board to “grandfather” in their use. Faber did not, he said, because no one told him he had to.

“I know I was nonconforming. I knew it since 2008. It’s no secret,” Faber told the board. “No law says you have to do it immediately.”

That changed in 2022, when Adam Whitlock, chief of code enforcement for Baltimore County, initiated new policies to curb repeat violations of the housing code. One was for his office to oversee rental property licenses, which property owners renew every three years. Properties where the uses did not conform to the zoning could not renew their rental licenses until their owners became “legal” through the administrative hearing process. After 15 years, the county told Faber to get the property into compliance.

After a Zoom hearing in June, where residents complained about multiple violations at the boarding house, Administrative Law Judge Maureen Murphy ruled that Faber’s property never ceased to be a boarding house, and thus could continue to be one. Residents immediately appealed; a decision is expected by the end of this week.

Whitlock says that despite the many code inspector calls to Faber’s property, the county does not have the authority to shut down the boarding house.

“From a zoning standpoint, they are considered nonconforming,” he said. “That allows them to be there.” Even if the zoning board overturns the previous opinion and declines to grandfather in the property, the zoning board cannot order the boarding house to cease operation. That question will likely become a matter for higher courts.

‘We are not dirtbags’

Neighbors sometimes refer to the boarding house as “Holly Neck’s House of Horrors.” But on a recent late-morning visit, the only horrors around were kitschy Halloween skeletons.

Friendly senior citizens milled about a flat lot, enjoying coffee and conversation. Rick Carter, a retired window installer who has lived there on and off for years, smoked a cigarette. Screen doors swung open as others joined. Holly Neck Road’s foliage was in full glory, and the resident osprey had just departed for the season.

Residents say Faber has given tenants breaks on security deposits or rent when times were tight. Rents hover around $650 each, compared to nearly $1,200 for a one-bedroom in the rest of Essex. Faber pays electric and cable and provides furniture. When Tammie Frid, 60, had to leave town to tend to a family member, Faber surprised her by upgrading her floors while she was gone.

Each apartment includes a sleeping nook, a living space, a small kitchenette, and a large, tiled bathroom. Unlike many efficiency units for rent in the region, Faber allows pets. State and county inspectors come by frequently but find no issues, Leicht maintained. He called the neighbors “hoity-toity Karens” who can’t empathize with those struggling.

Residents help each other out; Carter is partially blind, so neighbors drive him to the doctor.

“If I make a pot of spaghetti,” Frid said, ”there are a few people I deliver a plate to.”

Long-term residents acknowledge some bad years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year was also rough; police recorded more than 50 calls to the property for assaults, burglaries and disturbances. But once Love finally evicted some problem tenants, they say, the atmosphere changed. Frid feels comfortable bringing her grandchildren and safe on her own. Police recorded only seven calls for the first nine months in 2024, and only two merited reports.

In both zoning hearings, the protesting neighbors testified they’d never seen the inside of the property. Frid wishes they would come over. Maybe then they’d understand the boarding house is a community that’s not too different from their own.

“We’re not dirtbags. We’re normal people who live back here,” she said. “Think about what you do before you belittle other people.”