Baltimore County (Map, News) - Baltimore County preservationists Tuesday warned that proposed changes to the review of historic properties slated for demolition could facilitate a loss of the county’s “historic fabric.”

The proposal aims to give the appointed Landmark Preservation Commission the authority to approve demolition permits for properties on the county’s historic inventory, which is based largely on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Places. Under existing practice, the county’s zoning commissioner makes the determination with little expertise, officials said.

But under an amendment introduced at Tuesday’s council work session, the county inventory would cease to exist in three years, and a developer who wishes to demolish a property now on the list won’t have to seek special approval.

“I hear ‘streamline’ and ‘make it easier,’ “ said Ruth Mascari, the landmark commission’s former chair. “This bill only makes it easier to destroy the historic fabric of Baltimore County.”

The amendment was requested by the Maryland Historic Trust, whose list has no criteria or review and should not be used for regulatory purposes, county attorney Michael Field said.

Field emphasized that Baltimore County is one of only two in Maryland that allows third parties to nominate properties for protection as a historic landmark.

“It’s definitely a compromise, and we anticipated resistance from the preservation community,” Field said.

For the next three years, a structure on the county inventory will be automatically added to a preliminary landmarks list if a property owner tries to remove it from the list or requests a demolition permit.

Some concerned property owners cautioned against overzealous landmarking. Beverly Stevens, who live in a historic district in Relay, said she has to make several trips to Towson and file stacks of paperwork for simple home improvements. “It gets people to move away from preservation by its strictness,” she said.

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com