MANASSAS, Va. –

Of all the places on the Manassas City Council’s list of problem properties, the once-grand home at the corner of Prescott Avenue and Quarry Road is the saddest.

“It’s just a wonderful old house,” said Community Development Director Elizabeth Via-Gossman. “It’s got incredible woodwork inside of it. The chimneys need to be stripped off, the porch needs to be stripped off, but the structure itself is still sound.”

However, the upper floors of the century-old house are exposed to the elements. The wood-frame structure is “eroding from the inside,” according to Via-Gossman, and probably won’t survive another winter if it’s left unprotected.

Councilman J. Steven Randolph described the situation as “demolition by neglect.”

The property at 9300 Prescott Ave., at the entrance to the city’s historic district, belongs to Dorothy Feaganes and her daughter, Terry Feaganes, of Alexandria.

“It’s the house she grew up in,” Via-Gossman said of Dorothy Feaganes. “She’s had numerous offers to sell it but she doesn’t want to sell it because she has an emotional attachment to it. But they’re not able to take care of it anymore and they’ve not been living in it for a number of years.”

In May, the council told the owners to submit a plan to repair the place. The  Bank of America took control of the property in July, but still has not decided what to do with it.

Councilman Mark Wolfe, noting that the city has been waiting months for a decision from the bank, said, “We may need to take stronger action and be preemptive.”

The City Council narrowly decided in 2007 not to finance the restoration of the house by placing a lien on the property.

“I do not believe it’s fiscally responsible for the city to become the lender of last resort for people who do not maintain their property,” Councilman Jonathan L. Way explained at the time.

But last year, the Virginia General Assembly made what Via-Gossman described as “a huge change” in the law. It allowed local governments to pay for fixing up derelict buildings and be assured of recouping the money through the lien process.

Because of that change, Via-Gossman expects to recommend that the city budget between $20,000 and $90,000 to stabilize the house — “like mothballing a historic structure” — while the bank decides what to do with it.

“It still doesn’t look very good but at least it wouldn’t fall down,” she said.

“There’s still an issue about whether or not philosophically you want to spend money to maintain or stabilize private property, but at least with the lien … you’re assured at some point of that money coming back,” Via-Gossman added.

Spot Blight Abatement — in which the council asks owners to submit plans for demolition or renovation of structures that are deemed hazardous – is just one part of the city’s solution to the problem of run-down properties. Another is mobilizing volunteers to make repairs.

Community revitalization projects organized by Manassas Neighborhood Services during the last five years recently earned the city the Virginia Municipal League’s top honor, the President’s Award. Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II showed off the trophy, and congratulated Neighborhood Services Manager Kisha Wilson-Sogunro and a group of community leaders, at Monday night’s council meeting before the discussion turned to Spot Blight Abatement.

“Where there’s a neighborhood, where there’s people that want to improve things, that want to work with us as partners, we’re not going in with code enforcement officers, we’re doing everything through Neighborhood Services to improve those neighborhoods,” said Via-Gossman. “But then in these other areas, we don’t have volunteers. We don’t have a willing property owner. And then we’re going to use property code enforcement.”

Other eyesores the council is targeting include:

- The Treasures and Traditions shop at 9023 Centreville Road, which has been closed for more than five years

- A vacant brick house that’s for sale at 9530 Prince William St., across from Jennie Dean Elementary School

- An abandoned home at 9008 Sudley Road, which was being auctioned off in a tax sale Tuesday

- A house at 9460 Wellington Road that was demolished Monday and a bungalow at 9309 Grant Ave. that was torn down in July

- An occupied home at 9942 Wellington Road, next to Metz Middle School, that was being scraped and painted earlier this week

Via-Gossman predicted the council would take action on the properties that remain on the list by next month.

“There’s nothing worse than a vacant, deteriorating structure for a neighborhood, she said. “It impacts everybody’s property values, it breeds crime. I mean, it’s just all kinds of documented issues.”

Managing editor Steve Pendlebury can be reached at 703-530-3920.