(Photo: WBOC)DOVER, Del.- Rows of townhouses and homes line the street in the Village of Westover in Dover. But for the past two years, four vacant homes have been an eyesore for neighbors, hurting the curb appeal for the neighborhood.
"Who's going to want to move in, if somebody sells their house, because there's vacant houses there," said Ashley Jenkins.
Demolishing the homes would have cost the city of Dover $15,000 each but the property owner M&T bank has already started the tearing down process.
Shirley Burris is glad the homes are being demolished. She said they were affecting her property value.
"Anything that they do to those vacant homes is a big improvement," she said. "Living here as a homeowner, they make the value of your home depreciate."
In addition to the four vacant homes, there are also two incomplete townhouses. But city officials say their priority is on tearing down the single family homes.
"The next thing that they need to do is that they'll need to repair the siding and either complete or remove the partially completed decks on the back of the two townhouses," said city planning director, Ann Marie Townshend. "But again, the demolitions of the single family homes, that's the high priority."
Once the vacant homes are gone Jenkins hopes more people will drawn to the neighborhood.
"It really helps, you know, bring more people that want to come and stay here and bring more kids to the neighborhood and stuff like that," she said.
