Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields is claiming a triumph in the demolition of a 28-building apartment complex authorities described as "crime-ridden" and "neglected."
“This is a huge victory not only for APD, but for the City of Atlanta and anyone who lives in or near one of these neglected properties,” she said in a statement, Tuesday.
The demolition of Sierra Ridge apartments on Delmar Lane comes after more than a year of back-and-forth between the owners of the property and the city of Atlanta - the latter of which called the property "unfit for human habitation." That was the apparent wording of a nuisance petition due to more than 400 separate housing code violations. That number, the city said, came from a period of about 8 months.
In October of 2017, the owners of the property signed a consent order agreeing to repair, maintain and renovate the property over a period of 27 weeks. In March, the city filed a contempt motion against the property owners claiming they failed to comply with the order.
In April, Municipal Court Chief Judge Christopher Portis upheld the contempt order and added that the owners "both admitted and failed to contest that the property is unfit for human habitation, contains dilapidated structures, is a haven for excessive criminal activity and has a plethora of old, unresolved and new housing code and code enforcement violations."
From there, a demolition was ordered within 90 days.
“We know that these properties are, indeed, a haven for crime," Chief Shields said. "And we applaud Judge Portis recognizing that the only real option here was to order the demolition of this property."
The demolition is seemingly the last chapter in the story of an apartment complex that had more than a few run-ins with the city.
In August of 2017, Atlanta gave the complex's owners 2 weeks to pay up nearly $700,000 in delinquent water bills.
By that point, only about 40 of the 291 units were inhabited.
