Judge orders landlord to make KC apartment building safer after neighbors sue

Neighborhood organizers in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast scored a court victory this week that requires the owner of a dilapidated apartment complex to board up the buildings after weeks of fires.

The troubled Olive Park Village, off 9th and Olive streets, has faced concerns over alleged deteriorating and unsafe conditions for residents that burst into public consciousness late last year.

The federal government’s housing department ended its contract with the complex over safety and habitability concerns, meaning lower-income residents could not receive housing assistance to live there, and officials worked to help relocate residents.

But problems reportedly remained: The Independence Plaza Neighborhood Council filed a court case in December, calling the property a nuisance and seeking a judge to require the owner, Olive Park Village MO LLC, to deal with it.

“The conditions on the property are horrific,” Neighborhood Legal Support, which is providing services to Independence Plaza, said in a release this week.

The neighborhood group’s petition says the property has been left unsecured, causing break-ins and squatting, while several units have been severely damaged by fire alongside issues with water, trash, mold and vermin. The city has opened dangerous building cases tied to buildings in the complex, including an order to demolish or repair one of the buildings dating to November.

Court documents show that the city has even had to board up hundreds of doors and windows at its own expense, to the tune of $28,000.

But on Tuesday, a judge granted a request from the neighborhood council to require Olive Park’s owner, starting on March 2, to secure the doors and windows and hire a security patrol.

Forestine Beasley, president of the Independence Plaza Neighborhood Council, told The Star that it’s encouraging to see the process to address blighted conditions work.

She said Olive Park was a beautiful development that served a need in the community that went down drastically, and the way it’s been neglected is not humane.

Beasley said the owners should sell to someone else so living conditions can be improved and housing can be available for the community, not just boarded up and left there.

The neighborhood’s court case is not over, and a trial has been scheduled for March 17. Independence Plaza and its legal representatives are working to save the 100-plus remaining units in the complex so they can be used for affordable housing.

Gregg Lombardi of Neighborhood Legal Support said the next step will be the trial, which will deal with other nuisance concerns like vermin and mold. Further legal steps to transfer control of the property could follow.

Phillip Raine, attorney for Olive Park Village MO LLC, declined to comment given the ongoing nature of the court case.

Kansas City launched a pilot program last fall with Neighborhood Legal Support to identify dangerous homes that could be repaired and preserved as affordable housing, building on the organization’s ongoing legal work to that end.