Fire-Damaged Maple Avenue Home Sits Vacant for Years, City Explains Why

A half-burned bungalow on the 3300 block of Maple Avenue has stood in its fire-ravaged state long enough to show up on Google Earth, and Burlington's inspections director acknowledged this week that the city has no authority to force the developer to move any faster.

The property at 3333 Maple Avenue sits on a 4-acre parcel owned since the fall of 2022 by a Raleigh-based limited liability corporation called Maple Ave 1. When the company closed on the property for $327,000, the bungalow had already been reduced to its current charred condition. Alamance County's tax office has since zeroed out the structure's improved value entirely, assigning the parcel a taxable worth of $83,638 based on land value alone.

Maple Ave 1 has submitted plans to city officials for a 29-unit townhome development it has tentatively named "The Townes at Maple Grove." But as of this week, that proposal has not translated into any active permits.

"We haven't issued any permits," the city's inspections director, Williams, said in an interview Tuesday, "and we can't force the developer to move at the rate that we want. But they do have the greenlight to begin."

Williams said the demolition of the fire-damaged structure will depend entirely on the developer's own timetable. He offered little comfort to neighbors who have watched the ashen dwelling sit untouched for years.

"I've been with the city for five years," Williams acknowledged, "and it's been like this ever since I've been here."

That admission puts the structure's current condition in place for at least five years, and likely longer given that Maple Ave 1 purchased a property already damaged when it closed in fall 2022. With no permits issued and no demolition date on record, residents of the 3300 block face an indefinite wait while the developer's plans for The Townes at Maple Grove remain on paper.