Six months after the bulldozers came for a beloved Randallstown landmark, the Baltimore County Council has passed legislation to fortify historic protections.

The two new laws passed this week clarify when the county can issue a demolition permit, and how the public and elected officials can appeal decisions to demolish buildings.

“This will help prevent the demolition of Baltimore County history,” Democratic Councilman Izzy Patoka said.

Bill 52-25 requires the council to take a vote on whether a structure deserves a place on the Final Landmarks List, which protects it in perpetuity. It allows the county’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to delay a demolition permit for 90 days if members believe the property is of “unusual importance to the jurisdiction, state, or nation.”

Bill 65-25 allows certain Landmarks Preservation Commission decisions to get a second airing at the county Board of Appeals — something not permitted before. If the commission declines to protect a structure, members of the public or the council have 30 days to appeal. The appeals board can reverse or modify the decision. Its decision is final, according to the law.

If these provisions sound specific, it’s because they stem from the surprise demolition in April of Choate House — a 215-year-old tavern at the busy corner of Liberty Road and Owings Mills Boulevard.

Choate House had been on the Preliminary Landmarks List for five years and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1989. It is also on the Maryland Historic Trust Inventory.

Developer Jay Attar tore it down to make way for 242 townhomes.

Patoka and David Marks, a Kingsville Republican, had Choate House in mind when they proposed the additional protections. Both say they were heartbroken to lose the landmark but neither was in a position to protect it or even know it was being demolished.

“This gives me great assurance,” Marks said of the new review processes.

Phoebe Evans Latocha, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said she’s not sure the bill, which was weakened during months of back-and-forth, would protect the property if it were standing today.

“I don’t think this is the backstop that it could have been,” she said.

Choate House was a sentinel on a busy corner that would otherwise be all but unrecognizable to a tourist from the 19th century. Made of uncoursed rubble granite masonry quarried in nearby towns, the structure was one of the few remaining buildings that harked back to the days of horse-and-buggy transit before the Choates built Liberty Road.

Losing it, Shirley Supik said, was like losing a “royal treasure.”

Attar bought the 12-acre parcel for $750,000 last year. He was willing to save Choate House after Councilman Julian Jones, whose district includes the parcel, asked him to do so.

His only stipulation: that the community really wanted it preserved. Most properties remain on the preliminary list for one year before they advance to the final list. But Choate House had remained for five years and fallen into disrepair, leading Attar to wonder whether anyone cared about it.

The process for properties on the preliminary list is for the council to hold a hearing and then schedule a vote for final listing. Attar told Jones to start the process and, if anyone objected to the demolition, he would stand down.

Jones called a hearing for Oct. 7, 2024. No one from the community spoke out.

Ninety days passed. Jones did not call for a vote. Because of councilmanic courtesy, the ball was in Jones’ court. Patoka and Marks were not aware the clock had started ticking.

Jones wasn’t focused on it, either, and he said he wished the council’s attorney would have reminded him. Marks said it’s the responsibility of the council member in whose district the property is located to schedule the vote.

Regardless of how it slipped away, time was no longer on Choate House’s side by Jan. 14, when Attar applied for a demolition permit. He received it Feb. 11. By March, the house was gone.

Marks said he was shocked when he learned the property had been demolished by chance at a town hall in his district.

Earlier versions of the bill prohibited demolition of historic structures if they were on the Preliminary Landmarks List, the National Register of Historic Places or the Maryland Historic Trust Inventory. They also would have required the county to notify by email the Preservation Alliance of Baltimore County when officials receive any demolition permit for a structure built before 1960. Council members excised those, along with a third bill requiring the landmarks commission to hold all meetings in person.

Latocha said she’s grateful for additional protections but is curious what will happen if a council member neglects to schedule a vote within 90 days of the hearing on a property in their district. At least now, though, there is a 90-day hold before demolition.

“I don’t know that it’s going to prevent a Choate House,” she said.

Marks thinks it will.

“Not everyone is 100% satisfied,” he said, “but this is progress in Baltimore County.”