City tables Wood Ridge fine forgiveness talks
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The owner of the Wood Ridge Apartments wants to sell the blighted complex in Southeast Austin in the next two weeks, but first he wants more than $400,000 in fines forgiven.
Wednesday night, attorneys for both the buyer and seller told Austin’s Building and Standards Commission that the current fines make it impossible for the sale to go through.
The buyer also wants six months to fix the hundreds of code violations at the complex.
It's been more than nine months since a walkway collapsed on one of the buildings.
The city ordered all 15 walkways on the building to be replaced, but very little work has been done. The buyer's attorney says that could change if the fines go away.
"It will make them $400,000 less creditworthy,” the buyer’s attorney Chip Somerville said. “It's a debt that they've got to pay somehow, and presumably immediately. They are subject to sanctions by the city if they don't."
Wood Ridge owners and buyers will meet with Code Compliance in March to figure out ways to bring the property up to code. The sale is scheduled to be complete March 12th.