Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Planning & Development Services
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TO: |
David L. Corliss, City Manager |
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FROM: |
Brian Jimenez, Code Enforcement Manager |
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CC: |
Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Scott McCullough, Director Planning & Development Services |
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Date: |
July 1, 2014 |
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RE: |
1101 Indiana - Berkley Flats Apartment Complex |
Background
On June 19, 2014, staff completed an exterior inspection of the property at the request of the City Manager’s Office to document the overall condition of the apartment complex. The inspection included six buildings and the single family detached structure located at 1115 Indiana Street.
It should be noted that the complex is identified as 1101 Indiana Street by the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office and as 1123 Indiana Street in the 2014-2015 Yellow Pages; however, staff identified one building with street frontage on Indiana Street to have three addresses and all three buildings with street frontage on Mississippi Street to have multiple addresses on each building.
In researching the building permit history, it was determined the buildings with street frontage on Mississippi Street obtained building permits in 1985 for the addresses of 1100, (1010-1014-1018) and for 1120-24. Staff determined 1107 Indiana Street was built in 1961 and a building identified as (1119-1123-1127) was built in 1962. Staff could not locate building permit records for the building that is addressed as 1101 Indiana Street.
The inspection results are as follows:
1100-1104
The building is located at the northwest corner of the property and is at the intersection of Mississippi Street and 11th Street. Although one building, it has two addresses.
Building 1101
The building is located at the northeast corner of the property and is at the intersection of Indiana Street and 11th Street.
Building 1107
The building is immediately south of building 1101 and located on the north side of the open space that is next to 1115 Indiana Street (Georgia Bell’s home).
Building 1110-1114-1118
The building is immediately south of building 1100-1104 and is one building with three addresses.
Building 1120-1124
The building is located at the southwest corner of the property.
Building 1123-1125-1127
This building is located at the southeast corner of the property.
1115 Indiana
The property is a single family detached structure that was owned and lived in by Georgia Bell for many years. Due to the elevation change and the distance of the house from the right-of-way, it was difficult to take quality pictures of the dilapidation of the house.
Parking Lot
Overall, the parking lot was in good condition. There has been a decent amount of patch work but the striping appears to be relatively new and there are no pot holes. The only area of concern was a median that is deteriorated and is shown in Picture #36.
Summary
It is staff’s opinion that the apartment complex as a whole is in decent condition considering the age of the buildings inspected. There are several problematic areas regarding storm water drainage as noted and identified in the referenced pictures. Some of those concerns have been caused by a lack of maintenance such as vegetation growing in the gutters preventing appropriate discharge and the improper grading of soil. Addressing the grading issue should be a high priority to appropriately discharge storm water away from the buildings and to prevent further deterioration of the foundations. Additionally, all deteriorated paths of egress such as steps, sidewalks and decking should be addressed immediately to prevent injury.
Staff observed only minor issues regarding the exterior walls of the buildings which included the inspection of the siding, trim and windows. Maintenance of the exteriors do not appear to be an issue as there were no areas of chipping paint or lack thereof. Furthermore, staff did not see any siding, trim, or joints that were in need of caulking.
An area of significant concern is the condition of the retaining walls along the south and east sides of building 1123-25-27. These walls do carry an unknown amount of the roof load therefore there are apprehensions that the cracks will get worse over time and will eventually lead to significant buckling and/or failure if not repaired.
It was readily apparent that the single detached house has lacked maintenance for many years as much of the house siding was weathered, was rotted and lacked paint. As noted, it was difficult to give a complete analysis of the exterior due to the distance that staff observed the house from combined with the house being surrounded by heavy vegetation and trees.