Council Tables Vote to Condemn 13 Units at South Tuscaloosa Apartment Complex
The City Council has pushed back a vote to condemn and demolish more than a dozen buildings at a dilapidated apartment complex in southern Tuscaloosa after a long effort to improve conditions there.
The complex, the Legacy at Country Club Apartments, is on Mimosa Park Road between Cedar Oak Memorial Park cemetery and another apartment complex, the Links.
It is owned by out-of-town developers based in Nashville, who reportedly do not even have an on-site property manager at the Legacy any more.
A resolution before the council Tuesday would have declared buildings 6, 7, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 31 and 33 as unsafe public nuisances.
City staff said the buildings had more than 600 combined violations of the housing code, including multiple burned-out units, black mold, and countless unsecured front and rear doors which people are reportedly entering frequently.
The 224-unit apartment complex is in District 2, where councilwoman Raevan Howard has worked for around two years to force improvement in the area.
The tipping point came in May, when Howard was reportedly alerted to a deer carcass in the building's open and filthy pool, which was allowed to decompose until animal control officers removed it.
On Tuesday, the city council was to consider ordering the demolition of the worst of the buildings on the property - a decision they already tabled two weeks ago - but once again agreed to give the developer more time to make a plan and secure financing for repairs that will cost millions.
The vote to table the issue only came after a tongue-lashing from both Mayor Walt Maddox and Councilwoman Howard.
"It's inhuman, frankly. The owner would not accept that in his neighbourhood and he would never live in conditions like that. It's shameful he thinks that's acceptable," Maddox said. "But at the end of the day, the best case scenario is to get this fixed quickly. We think there may be a pathway to buy two weeks and look to a larger solution that rectifies this problem once and for all."
City attorney Scott Holmes explained that fixing the problems will require major financing, and no one is going to give the property owner financing while there are active condemnation hearings against buildings in the complex.
Reluctantly, the council voted to table the condemnation for two weeks to allow the landlord and his attorney Bryan Winter to come up with a serious plan to solve these issues and make measurable progress on securing the buildings on the way to demolishing or rehabilitating them into what they said could become affordable housing for local workers.
"I am so much more in favor of condemnation, but I also have the issue of wanting to protect the possibility of workforce development housing and affordable housing," Howard said. "But I also have to protect the integrity of the communities that surround these properties."
The council will take the matter up again when they meet on August 18th.
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