Community Issues - Code Enforcement

Belair (Discount) Mattress, 12037 Belair Rd (old PNC Bank location)

This new business took over the old PNC Bank space, at about the same time that Reds lost their lease and was forced to close. It is suspected that the property owner's have some new use in mind and may just be filling this space temporarily. In any case, almost all mattress stores are "temporary" anyway.

Incidentally, the trademark was just registered in October 2018 as a "Belair Mattress", owned by RFB Trucking, Inc, of Jarrettsville.

This business immediately began violating the Baltimore County Sign Code and community standards. I suspect that the below is just the beginning of a long line of complaints to clean up this property. They may allow this kind of crap in Harford County, but we don't here.

Complaints

Case CC1818040, filed Dec 12, 2018

Description: Blow-up "dancing man" sign. Truck parked as sign. Sale material (mattresses) displayed in truck bed by road. Change in use from bank to retail probably requires some zoning action to verify required parking.

Closed as "dismissed" on Dec 13, i.e., online "status" of case indicates no action was actually taken, not even an inspection.

Case CC1900064, filed Jan 2, 2019

Description: Excessive signs and product (mattresses) in front of store. This was previously corrected (I thought) in Case CC1818040.

Correction notice issued Jan 12 - "Remove non permitted signage, Remove mattresses, pendants (pennants) and other items discussed". Compliance is required by Jan 25. (Although it might eventually be corrected, it's pretty bad that CE allows them to continue the violations for 2 weeks, considering that all the violations are removed every evening and put back out every morning.)

In fact, the violations continued long after the Jan 25 deadline. Here is a photo from Feb 15:

A new complaint was filed which was immediately labeled as "duplicate" and closed because the previous complaint was still opened. (I later found out that the inspector assigned this case had left the department, so this, and other cases, were probably dropped on the floor.

Weekly Open Complaints Report: Jan 6 - inspection scheduled Jan 31. Jan 20 - Inspection scheduled Jan 26. Feb 3 - "pending". Feb 24 and Mar 10 - inspection scheduled for Mar 18. Mar 24 and Mar 31 - "pending". April 21 - closed Mar 18. (This again demonstrate how the states shown on the "Weekly Open Complaint Report" does not match the status shown on the Accela System. This is one reason it is so hard for citizens to know what is happening.

Case CC1915117, Oct 12, 2019

Description: Excessive signs, including "temporary" signs, blow-up "dancing man", wall-mounted signs, feather flags (with stars and stripes, but not actual US "flags") that are blocking driver's view.

As the first action by Code Enforcement, on Oct 17 the case was closed as "no violation". I observed the violation 10 minutes later and sent an e-mail to the director of PAI. The case was reopened and, this time, the inspector had had enough. She issued a correction notice on Oct 26, a citation on Nov 26 for $1000 (against Kingsville Market, the property owner), and a hearing was held on Dec 17, 2019. The store owner whined about how the lack of signs would put him out of business. There was no sympathy from the judge who sustained the $1000 fine which went as a lien against the property, which was paid by the property owner.

Hopefully, they will make it clear to any future tenant that they can't do this.

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Updated 16 Sept 2021