January is a critical month for Country Village Apartments
by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers
January is a critical month for Country Village Apartments in Burnsville. Unit-by-unit inspections have begun that will determine whether the troubled complex is forced to evict some of its residents or even shut down entirely on March 1.
So far, the results aren’t good: Three of five units the city had inspected as of Jan. 6 failed their inspections, Deputy City Manager Tom Hansen said.
Meanwhile, the Scott Carver Dakota CAP Agency is seeking up to $50,000 in donations to help relocate families who may be forced out of the complex. The agency estimates that 50 families could need emergency funds to pay security deposits on new apartments.
Hansen said he had been cautiously optimistic that Country Village owner Lindahl Properties LP, after hiring contractor Renovation Systems, would be able to meet all the deadlines set by the City Council on Dec. 20 to bring the complex up to code.
“I’m not so sure anymore,” Hansen said Jan. 6. City officials met with Lindahl and its contractor on Dec. 27. The pace of progress since then on fixing dozens of code violations at the west Burnsville complex has shaded Hansen’s outlook.
“Between then and now, it looks like the pace of work over there isn’t what it needs to be,” he said. Also, the contractor and the complex’s newly hired management company appeared at odds over responsibility for parts of the job, Hansen said.
Months of wrestling with Lindahl over chronic disrepair, mold and pests at Country Village came to a head Dec. 20 when fed-up council members voted 4-1 to approve the complex’s 2012 rental license with numerous conditions.
They include a series of deadlines for bringing the complex up to code.
The first, repairing all fire doors and alarm systems by Jan. 15, looks doable, Hansen said.
The second is more daunting. It requires all city-ordered work inside the buildings and apartments of the 138-unit complex to be finished by March 1.
The city plans to inspect all the units by Jan. 31. The March 1 deadline allows for a 30-day period in which the landlord can commence the process of evicting residents of units that fail inspections, Hansen said.
“That takes you right to March 1,” he said. “Everything is kind of heading toward March 1 for either they’ve made it or they haven’t.”
The city has already sent a letter to Lindahl saying it should begin the process of removing residents from the three units that failed this month’s inspections, Hansen said.
The owner can fix the problems and call the city back for reinspections, but, like the previous inspections, it will cost another $125 per unit, Hansen said. After sinking some 700 hours of staff time into the complex, the city is now charging the per-unit fee for unit inspections and another fee for building inspections.
Lindahl is on notice that the city plans to do most of the unit inspections in January, Hansen said. He said the city is waiting for notification from Lindahl when more units are ready to be inspected.
“Most of the inspections should be done by the end of this month,” he said. “The vacant units could still be done in February, as well as any reinspections of the units that fail this time around.”
Only 32 units passed inspections late last year and are actually licensed for occupancy under the council’s Dec. 20 action, Hansen said.
Further deadlines for work are May 1 for exterior and roof repairs and May 31 for removing a swimming pool or returning it to working order.
Resident relocation
The nonprofit CAP Agency hopes to raise $28,000 to $50,000 to help potentially displaced residents pay deposits when they move to new apartments, said Rebecca Bowers, CAP’s vice president for development.
“We’re thinking anywhere from 40 to 60 families might need help,” she said. “We’re hoping a lot less clients may need help.”
Residents forced to leave Country Village aren’t likely to get their deposits back from Lindahl, the agency predicts, making deposit assistance all the more crucial.
“What we’re finding is these are working families; they do have resources,” Bowers said. “It’s just being able to make an unexpected deposit that they weren’t prepared for.”
The Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing is spreading the word on donations among congregations and is poised to help in other ways if needed, said Jean MacFarland of Burnsville, MICAH’s board president and a member of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.
The CAP Agency also serves as a link to other resources, such as HousingLink and legal aid, Bowers said.
John Gessner is at john.gessner@ecm-inc.com.
