A Washington property owner wants to demolish the rundown two-story-house at 325 N. Harvey St. so a potential buyer can build a story-and-half house on the lot.

Washington’s Historic Preservation Commission will consider the request for a certificate of appropriateness during its meeting Wednesday. Caroline Collie owns the existing house. Tony Edwards, with AG’s Home Solutions, is the applicant seeking the certificate of appropriateness.

The new house will look similar to the house at 413 N. Bonner St. and possibly incorporate some items from the old house in its construction, according to city documents and email between Collie and Edwards.

“Unfortunately, your property’s bones are (too) brittle. The floor framing, walls and support bands are (too) far gone. The cost to try and renovate this property would be exorbitant! But Wait … we do have an idea,” Edwards wrote in an April 22 email to Collie. “Before the property is demolished, we remove some o the material that can be saved, the hardwood floors upstairs, the handrails, the tub and even some of the siding and use this in the new house.”

Collie has been working with city planning staff since January, when staff discussed the city’s demolition-by-neglect ordinance with her, according to a staff report. “The structure is infested with termites and bats. The property was offered to Preservation North Carolina, but it is financially unfeasible for them to save,” reads the report.

The commission has two options. It can grant the certificate of appropriates to demolish the house or it can grant the certificate of appropriates to demolish the house and delay its demolition for up to 365 days.

The demolition-by-neglect ordinance is used by the city to keep historically and/or architecturally significant properties from deteriorating to the point they cannot be saved by rehabilitation measures.

As part of enforcing the demolition by neglect ordinance, the city sends letters to owners of affected properties asking them to make needed repairs and/or improvements to those properties to help prevent their deterioration. If those repairs are not made, the city can condemn the properties and have them demolished.

The city has condemned and demolished several buildings in recent years. Efforts to save and restore some of those buildings have met with mixed results. A house on Water Street was condemned, but the city, after a public outcry, rescinded that condemnation so it could be restored and renovated. The house behind Tattoo Rich, the tattoo parlor at the corner of West Second and Bridge streets, was demolished after attempts to save it failed.