Tuesday, November 13, 2012
City follows up on its comprehensive Residential Housing Survey. Of the 1,741 homes in Lakewood that “needed work,” almost half of them were improved over the summer.
Corrrection: 858 homes were reported improved. The previous version of this story had the wrong number of houses. After the city finished up the work of its comprehensive Residential Housing Survey earlier this year, the residents who received notices in their mailboxes began the work of fixing up their homes. The result? Of the 1,741 homes in Lakewood that “needed work,” almost half of them were improved over the summer. Most of the issues were minor: peeling paint, cracked driveways, broken fences. The updated housing survey map (to the right) shows hundreds of color-speckled dots on a satellite image of Lakewood telling the story of the current state of the city’s aging housing stock. Red is bad, green is good. There’s now more green …
Saturday, September 22, 2012
With the recent departure of two city building inspectors, officials are looking to make the position a little more versatile moving forward.
The metaphoric wall between residential and commercial inspectors is coming down in Lakewood City Hall. With the recent departure of two city building inspectors, officials are looking to make the positions a little more versatile moving forward. The idea is to “cross-train” inspectors, giving them the skills to handle either type of inspection, said Dru Siley, the city’s director of building and housing. “Our goal is to send inspectors where the work is, and not just artificially divide them up,” said Siley. “There is a lot of commercial development going on right now and our housing strategy is moving forward, so we’re staying busy.” Bob Apanasewicz, the city’s assistant building commissioner for commercial buildings, said that …
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
About 14 percent of Lakewood's homes don't meet city code. So we've put together a searchable database to help you find out if your home is one of them.
More than 1,700 homes in Lakewood need some help getting up to housing code. That’s according to the city’s finished comprehensive housing survey. Lakewood Patch has compiled a complete database to look up the properties in Lakewood that need some work. However, city officials said that since the housing survey was finished in March, about 50 property owners have fixed their issues. Earlier this year, the city released the initial results of the study — with Ward 4 data not yet available — following months of neighborhood canvassing. Hundreds of color-speckled dots on a satellite image of Lakewood tell the story of the current state — as well as the future — of the city’s aging housing stock. Red is bad, green is good. Last summer, city …
Friday, March 16, 2012
The building at 16900 Detroit Avenue — cited for several building code violations — is expected to come down within a month.
A building on the site of a Detroit Avenue property — recently considered for a new Taco Bell restaurant — is slated for demolition. The 100-year-old structure at 16900 Detroit Avenue has a host of structural issues, including bowing walls that can be seen from the street, crumbling walls, bricks and windowsills. The building’s owner, Chris Lamb, confirmed that demolition will be completed within three weeks, but said no development plans are in the works. “I am hoping something comes along in the near future, but I don’t have anything lined up,” said Lamb, who bought the building in June 2011. According to sources, the site was slated to be the new location of Taco Bell, but the deal fell through. Lamb would neither confirm nor deny that…
ian king
3:40 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Hi - good news about Lakewood's private/residential properties being repaired/restored, but what about our city's many commercial, rental properties? Particulary, the East Side of Lakewood - along Edgewater, Clifton, Lake - all have rental buildings in various states of disrepair/aging decline - with no apparent landlord initiative/incentive to restore these becoming "eyesore" buildings. What is … more ›