Council Gives Village at Woodshire Six Months To Improve

By Amber Lester Kennedy Friday, March 11, 2011

The city’s Code Compliance Division recommended adding the Merrimac Trail complex to its Rental Inspection Program, which would give the city opportunities to inspect the apartments to ensure their safety. At Thursday’s meeting, however, Elizabeth Bubier, a manager with Great Atlantic Management, successfully asked for six months to prove the company is serious about improving conditions at the 288-unit complex.

The Codes Compliance Division became concerned last year, when the amount of resident complaints rose dramatically. In 2006, the city received 11 complaints, but in 2010, the city received 70 complaints. Codes Compliance Administrator Stanley Skinner told the council that some calls resulted in the discovery of multiple code violations.

Follow-up inspections to check if changes have been made increased from 28 in 2006 to 199 in 2010. The complaints have included roof leaks (in some cases leading to ceiling collapses), sewer back-ups, non-functioning heating and cooling, gas leaks and flooding. In addition, 10 units were condemned in August and September 2010 because of sewer backups and roof leaks.

Adding the complex to the Rental Inspection Program would have allowed Codes Compliance staff to inspect 10 percent of the units. If no violations were found, a 48-month certificate of compliance would be issued; if violations were found, the certificate would not be issued until the violations were corrected, and the inspector could look at any or all apartments until satisfied. If a certificate was granted and subsequent violations were discovered, the certificate may be revoked and the complex would have to schedule annual inspections. The Village at Woodshire is not in one of the designated rental inspection districts, adopted in 2004.

Great Atlantic Management, based in Virginia Beach, filed a request for an extension in hopes it would give the company time to make some improvements. Bubier told the council that the company spent $2 million on renovation projects in 2008, but suffered serious damage when a Nor’Easter swept through the region in November 2009. The storm caused the roof problems that resulted in ceiling collapses, she said. The management plans to move forward with plans to upgrade the complex’s lighting, continue extermination efforts, repair and replace heating and cooling systems and regularly clear the water and sewer lines.

“We realize the ideal number of complaints is zero,” she said. “We’d like to ask for a six-month deferral to give us an opportunity to show we can get much closer to that number of zero complaints.”

Skinner told council it wasn’t an isolated incident that led to the complaints received in 2010, and said many of the problems his office has seen were present before the Nor’Easter. He said the Codes Compliance Division has no way of verifying whether residents brought complaints to management before calling the city, but said many have claimed they talked to management first. Still, problems have been corrected in the past, and the city has never had to take the management company to court, he said, and he endorsed the six-month deferral plan. Planning Director Reed Nester echoed his endorsement.

The board members expressed concern about the state of the complex, but chose to give management a chance to make improvements. Vice Mayor Paul Freiling said he was “seriously concerned” that six months wouldn’t be enough time to demonstrate significant change, but said, “If the six months is an incentive to do better, that would be a good incentive to have.”

The board agreed to revisit the issue at its Oct. 13 meeting.