An Essex boardinghouse faces likely closure after a local zoning appeals board found that it hadn’t met the requirements to stay open while being out of compliance with the zoning code.

Neighbors have long called the boardinghouse at 2420 Holly Neck Road a nuisance, complaining about drug use, unattended deaths and harassment. But it has been a lifeline to some of the 18 tenants there now, most of whom are senior citizens. They say the frequent police calls are a result of a few bad apples who have been gone for a year.

The Baltimore County Board of Appeals inherited the case from a lower zoning court, where Administrative Law Judge Maureen Murphy in June affirmed that William Faber’s boardinghouse met the definition for a rooming place of unrelated individuals in continuous use. Several community associations seeking to shut the place down appealed that ruling, arguing that the boardinghouse was not in compliance with its current zoning.

“We don’t feel the petitioner has met his burden,” board chair Sharonne Bonardi stated. “Therefore, the special hearing is not granted to permit the existence of the boardinghouse.”

The three-judge panel said it would give the residents 120 days to move out. That clock will begin to tick when it issues its written ruling, which is not expected for a few weeks. Even then, if Faber appeals — which he said he would do — the board would issue a stay on the order to vacate. That likely gives the residents at least six months before they have to relocate, and likely more time with an appeal.

Many of the residents are elderly and say they ended up at Faber’s because they had nowhere else to go. Housing in Essex is pricey, as it is all over Baltimore County. Faber charges less than $700 for a clean, furnished efficiency with a large, tiled bathroom and a cooktop. Residents enjoy the peace of area birds and the camaraderie of a community built on getting each other to medical appointments and taking care of one another’s pets.

The current debate dates back to 2008, when neighbors — frustrated with years of neglect, decay and crime at the property — convinced then-County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder to rezone the property to a classification that banned boardinghouses. Neighbors believed that once Faber was out of compliance, the county would shut him down.

But Baltimore County never did, and Faber added more rooms to the one-time bar and store that his father built in 1948. His property became what is known as a “non-conforming use,” a legal-limbo status in which the owner is not complying with the property’s zoning, but also is not likely to be shut down right away. Attorneys who do business in Baltimore County said such situations are common, and that many non-conforming uses exist until someone complains about them.

For years, neighbors did complain— to no avail. 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.

Whitlock’s office told Faber he could not renew his rental license until his property moved into compliance. So, Faber and his attorneys prepared for zoning court. Murphy ruled in their favor despite several residents testifying about myriad problems at the property.

This time, the judges listened to the details of numerous code violations, police calls, and deaths — all of which factored into their decision. In particular, board member William Paulshock was alarmed by reports of needles in the trash on the property, and testimony from Faber and his maintenance man confirmed that six people had died there of natural causes.

“It’s hard for me to get over all of the public health and safety concerns of what’s happening here.” Paulshock said. “It’s a public health and safety issue not only to anyone who is a resident, but also anyone visiting the property, and to the properties in the community.”

The threshold for being grandfathered in as a non-conforming use is high, and the judges were unanimous that Faber did not meet it.

The 82-year-old owner, who lives in The Philippines, submitted no leases, canceled checks, prior rental licenses or proof of insurance to show he’d been operating it as a boardinghouse. He also did not ask any of his tenants to testify. He had no photographs of the inside. Because of that, the judges said, they could not determine that he had consistently operated it as a boardinghouse, as the law requires.

“All of those would have been pretty easy things to do,” said board member Fred Lauer. Without them, Lauer said, “I don’t know in my mind if there was sufficient evidence that it currently is a boardinghouse.”

The judges also ruled that Faber’s decision to add nine rooms after 2008 was not an intensification, as is allowed, but an expansion, which is not. And they further agreed that the expansion changed the character of the neighborhood, which also was a strike against Faber’s attempt to get his property grandfathered in.

Finally, all three judges said they could not ignore the quality-of-life issues that residents raised. From 2000 through September 2024, county records show, area residents called police 573 times. And though Faber fixed the numerous code violations, the judges could not be certain they were gone permanently.

The Rockaway Beach and Turkey Point community associations were elated at the news, saying on their Facebook page that the decision “vindicates the residents attempts to have this property addressed for over a decade by the county.”