FAIRHOPE – Baldwin officials will decide whether the most practical use for a county-owned Fairhope house is to sell the structure or tear it down.
The Springer House behind the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse was built in 1972. Since the county bought the 1,694-square-foot structure on Bishop Road in 2008, the structure has been used for offices for several agencies, Junius Long, county facility director, said.
The building, however, has been vacant for several years and would need extensive renovations to be suitable for use again, Long told the Baldwin County Commission on Feb. 26.
“The house is in disarray,” Long said. “To put it back up to livable is going to cost about $250,000 by my estimate. My suggestion is to tear the house down. That is what I would recommend to the commission. It would be a good parking lot.”
Commissioners said, however, that the property is not in a good location to be used for parking for the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse.
“We discussed using it for parking, but it’s not contiguous to the rest of the courthouse parking,” Commission Chair Billie Joe Underwood said.
Officials also questioned whether the property had any restrictions that would not allow the county to sell the site. Underwood said she believed that the county bought the site as a direct purchase without stipulations but that officials should check on the deed restrictions.
Underwood said the county should not have a problem selling a parcel that is zoned for single-family residential use in a growing area such as Fairhope.
Commissioner Joe Davis said the building is across Bishop Road from school system property in Fairhope and could be of use by either the Board of Education or the city.
“I’d like for us to particularly reach out if the law allows us to, to the school board and the city of Fairhope,” Davis said. “That’s something that they might need the footprint, not necessarily the building. Then I’m about horse trading. There are things that we need from them and we can make some kind of arrangement. Because just putting it on the market and expecting retailers to buy a house would be hard to do.”
Long also said another county-owned building next to the house is also in such bad condition that the best solution would be to demolish the structure. He said, however, that some office furniture is being stored in that building until new offices can be completed on the second floor of the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse.
Commissioner Charles “Skip” Gruber said that if the most practice use of resources would be to tear down both buildings at once, the future could be placed in a storage unit until offices are completed.
Commissioners asked Long to prepare a recommendation for the property and present the proposal at the next work session on March 10.
