Minutes - Council - 06/12/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Bruce Lindberg, 6996 139th Lane NW, stated he and his wife were residents from the day the townhomes at Sunwood Drive and Highway 47 opened. They were the fourth tenants to move in, and for about the first 18 months it was great. Then there was a management change. The caretaker remained, and they were fairly decent people. They were afraid to address some of the ethnic issues there. The issue was at the central office; things were lost. They did not even have his lease and claimed it was because of the transition inside the organization. As residents they saw the changes. They also saw them in how people were being screened and evicted. There was a sexual predator that was a minor living on the grounds that was accused of raping a woman on the property. He had been seen peeping into windows and masturbating. The police were notified, but his family was allowed to stay. Right in the lease it says that drugs are not allowed and that 24 hours notification of eviction will happen if drugs are found on the premises. That did not happen with a tenant there; she went to treatment and was right back on drugs. ACCAP was notified and the resident stayed. She was there for one year. He had a copy of the lease at home and called. He called and told the manager about the young man; he walked right into his garage and up to him, and did not even ask to come into his garage. He has no boundaries. Mr. Lindberg stated he works with kids that have emotional problems, and this young man would have been in the most severe treatment program bordering on ending up at one of the juvenile facilities the state runs. He stated he is concerned with these issues, and that this will happen up here. He realizes it looks like average, overall, across the community, but what they experienced when they were there for the last 12 months, things were not being maintained properly. The fence issue was due to faulty construction and the way those things were put together. They were tied to the bidding process and had to take the lowest bidder, which is not always the best quality work. The last time the fence blew down was with the tornado that blew through. That part was always maintained well, but fixing things and getting calls back from management took forever. Things went downhill in the last 24 months. Mr. Lindberg stated they bought their house on June 21 st of last year and have run into residents who have said they will not believe how bad it has gotten. The people at their place are partying 24 hours. The resident next door has called and complained to the police and ACCAP. She is a user of the system, but she was respectful and she did not make a lot of noise late at night. He would hate to go back and look at the place to see how they have trashed the house. That is the type of thing they are talking about with how it is maintained. They found broken glass at the park multiple times and called to have it cleaned up, and they kept pushing the buck back and forth. There were seven year olds watching the two and three year olds, which was a cultural thing because they came from other countries. The families were respectful, but their vision of what their role should be was completely different than what our community says their role should be; our community says you should always watch your children and theirs says a community raises a child. These townhomes were great at first, but the management was really questionable. His other question is with the parking. His grandmother lived in a senior building in Robbinsdale that sounds a lot like this with the retail on the bottom, but they had underground parking. He asked why that was not considered. Mayor Gamec replied the parking cannot be underground because of the water table. Mr. Lindberg stated a municipal parking ramp is for the people of the municipality, not for the private residents. ' City Council / June 12,2007 Page 11 of 29