Several historic buildings around Bel Air may be declared surplus and sold off by the town and county, in efforts to put properties back on the tax rolls and jettison expensive renovation or maintenance projects.

Bel Air’s Board of Town Commissioners voted Monday night to move forward with the surplus of Proctor House, a Gothic Revival house on Gordon Street formerly owned by the Board of Education and the Harford County government.

A construction company plans to buy the property for $250,000 and put as much as $450,000 into renovating and restoring it, said Bel Air Mayor Robert Preston. The turnaround will take the property off the town’s hands while adding some much-needed property tax income, he said.

“The town never wanted to be in the rental business to begin with,” said Preston, pointing out that the town already rents out historic properties such as the Reckord Armory and Rockfield Manor for events. “The plan has always been that we save the house, we get it back on the tax rolls, then someone renovates it.”

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The house could become a bed-and-breakfast or offices, but could not be demolished or significantly changed because it is registered as a historic building, Preston said.

Harford also is moving to sell several old buildings in Bel Air. Three properties along Courtland Street, across from the Circuit Court, may be declared surplus due to the comparatively expensive cost of upkeep and updating them, said Lorraine Costello, the county’s director of administration.

“Those three properties need a lot of work, and they don’t really suit the needs of the county’s functions there,” Costello said. If declared surplus by the County Council at the administration’s request, the buildings will be sold at auction.

County Councilman James “Captain Jim” McMahan, a Republican representing Bel Air, said the time was right to let the properties go.

“The longer we wait, the more deterioration there is,” he said. “When they’re sold to a private entity, then we’ll start to see more taxes, for both the town and the county.”

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com