Tenants need to vacate 200 Johnson County apartments after city condemns complex

Residents at a Gardner apartment complex have 48 hours to move out after the city condemned the property due to several safety concerns.

Aspen Place Apartments, a 200-unit complex on 101 Aspen St. in southwest Johnson County, has been declared unfit for habitation by Gardner due to the property’s water infrastructure, which has “severely deteriorated over time.”

“The outdated system has become increasingly unreliable, with frequent pipe ruptures and inconsistent water service,” Gardner Communications Manager Daneeka Marshall-Oquendo said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “Critically, it no longer provides sufficient water flow for fire suppression, severely limiting emergency services’ ability to respond effectively and posing a serious risk to residents’ safety.”

Deteriorating roadways on the property hinder emergency response vehicles, including fire trucks and ambulances, from accessing the complex safely, the city’s statement added.

Marshall-Oquendo told The Star in an interview that an emergency response vehicle recently sunk into the ground near the apartments and couldn’t move for several hours.

“That was the safety issue, if you can’t have emergency services get into the area you’re putting people in danger,” she said, adding that they couldn’t risk a fire or another emergency happening with no way for responders to access the area.

After the 48 hours expire, residents can return to their properties to retrieve their things in daylight hours, but can’t stay in the complex overnight, Marshall-Oquendo said.

In a post on Citizens for the Future of Gardner, a public Facebook group for Gardner residents, Mayor Todd Winters said that the city doesn’t provide utilities for the property, and the roads are privately owned.

“The city has been on site multiple times and issued citations, but to this point, the issues have not been addressed in a reasonable manner,” Winters said on Facebook. “As a result of this, we have no choice but to condemn the properties until such time as the issues can be resolved.”

Aspen Place Apartments wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Similarly on the Missouri side of the state line, nearly 100 tenants had to relocate from south Kansas City’s Cloverleaf Apartments after the Kansas City Fire Department cited multiple fire violations and declared the complex “unliveable.”

Winters said on Facebook that he was in meetings on Monday with Gardner, Johnson County and federal officials to make the decision and that city staff have worked over the last few days to assemble resources to “assist those who are affected.”

“I am very aware of the incredible challenges this will bring to many of the residents,” he said on Facebook. “On a personal level, this is gut-wrenching for me that we, as a city, must remove people (who did nothing wrong) from their residences. I have tried to come up with alternative options but nothing is viable.”

Aspen residents needing assistance can call the Gardner hotline at (913) 884-2700.

This is a developing story. Residents interested in sharing their experiences with the condemnation should email toconnor@kcstar.com.

This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 5:37 PM.