Hidden Village re-files lawsuit against city alleging racism, Fair Housing Act violations
The owner and manager of a Lakewood apartment complex that is home to a semi-independent living program for young people emerging from foster care has re-filed a complaint in federal court accusing the city of racism and violations of the Fair Housing Act over events that transpired in 2006 and 2007.
Hidden Village LLC, owner of the Hidden Village apartment complex located at 11849 Clifton Blvd., originally filed the lawsuit in December, 2008, but then withdrew it in July, 2009 in order to spend more time building its case (see .PDF).
The complaint doesn’t contain any new allegations against the city, but it does seek a more comprehensive court judgment. The new complaint omits Edward Favre, who is a Lakewood police officer and member of the Lakewood school board, as a defendant.
Previously, the lawsuit identified Favre as being “principally responsible for creating, directing and implementing the City’s unlawful attempts to expel the Hidden Valley Apartment tenants from the City of Lakewood.”
Aside from the city, the other defendants named in the lawsuit are former mayor Thomas George, former building commissioner Charles Barrett, former head housing honcho Edward E. Fitzgerald (who is misidentified as the current mayor), police chief Timothy Malley, and fire chief Lawrence Mroz.
The new 27-page complaint provides a general timeline and description of the series of events from Hidden Village’s perspective that resulted in the legal conflict (see .PDF).
In brief, the city felt components of the semi-independent living program, also known as a youth re-entry program, were not compatible with the zoning code. The dispute was heard before the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, which ruled in favor of Hidden Village.
In the year that followed, the apartment complex drew a lot of police attention and raised the ire of the city’s police chief and mayor.
The situation boiled over on May 22, 2007, when a team of police officers, building department personnel, firemen, and health department officials conducted an unannounced inspection of the interior of the property.
Hidden Village protested the incident and objected about subsequent inspection attempts. They also felt residents of the youth re-entry program were being harassed by police solely on the basis of their race.
Again, the complete complaint, which outlines in detail additional claims of racism, can be read here (.PDF).
The city has not yet responded to the complaint.
Miscellaneous notes
It has no direct connection to the lawsuit, but it is worth noting that Hidden Village is about $15,000 delinquent on their property taxes. They’re on a payment plan and have been making regular payments, however.
Also, as any serious police blotter observer knows, the police were frequent visitors at Hidden Village in 2008 for all sorts of problems. 2009 and 2010 don’t seem as bad in comparison, but there does appear to be more police activity there than is healthy, even if it doesn’t directly involve the youth re-entry program.
There are some interesting parallels between the situation at Hidden Village, and the situation the city encountered last year with Oak Tree Manor on Bonnieview Ave. One big difference is that the city won their case before the Board of Zoning Appeals, although the situation is still under appeal in county court (.PDF).
Legal updates
Jill Ann Stewart vs. City of Lakewood has been moved to federal court (see .PDF). Leonard Shelton vs. City of Lakewood could also be moved to federal court (see .PDF). The city still has Joe Falat in a headlock. His appeal remains in county court.
About a month or so ago, he received approval from the Board of Building Standards to construct a garage and convert his 4-unit house into a duplex. The situation was looking good, but then the county treasurer recently issued a foreclosure action on the house due to unpaid property taxes, so the story is far from over.
Peter Machlup (bottom of page) remains in a legal ping-pong game with the city as they try to have his case dismissed (see .PDF) and file back-and-forth pleadings.
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