Oak Ridge Today

Applewood Apartments buildings demolished

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After a years-long dispute over alleged code violations, the 13 Applewood Apartments buildings on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle have been demolished. The site of one former building at Hillside Road and West Hunter Circle is pictured above on Monday, July 9, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

After a years-long dispute over alleged code violations, the 13 Applewood Apartments buildings on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle have been demolished. The site of one former building at Hillside Road and West Hunter Circle is pictured above on Monday, July 9, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

After a years-long legal dispute over alleged code violations, the 13 Applewood Apartments buildings on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle have been demolished.

Brady Excavating and Demolition of Crab Orchard was working on removing the last apartment basement on West Hunter Circle on Monday. The basement walls are a foot thick, and Keith Brady of Brady Excavating and Demolition was using a trackhoe with a hammer attached to it to remove the concrete bunker-like walls.

The buildings themselves have already been torn down, and the debris has been hauled away.

Brady, who owns Brady Excavating and Demolition, said the next step will be grading. The site has to be leveled so that it can be mowed, won’t have holes, and will have “positive drainage.” Grading could take two to three days and could be done by next week, Brady said. Big trees on the perimeter and in the middle of the property will remain. [Read more…]

Demolition starts at Applewood Apartments

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Demolition work by Brady Excavating and Demolition of Crab Orchard, Tenn., was under way on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 25, 2018, at an Applewood Apartments building on Hunter Circle in the Highland View neighborhood in Oak Ridge. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Demolition work by Brady Excavating and Demolition of Crab Orchard, Tenn., was under way on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 25, 2018, at an Applewood Apartments building on Hunter Circle in the Highland View neighborhood in Oak Ridge. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9:30 a.m.

After years of court cases and codes enforcement battles, demolition work has started at the Applewood Apartments in Oak Ridge.

Demolition work started Tuesday at the 13-building apartment complex on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle in the Highland View neighborhood, just north of Oak Ridge Turnpike in central Oak Ridge. Two of the buildings had been knocked down as of Thursday afternoon.

Brady Excavating and Demolition of Crab Orchard, Tennessee, plans to demolish two buildings per week, weather permitting. It could take 2.5 months or so to complete the job. The demolition company is working for First Place Finish of Oak Ridge.

Asbestos abatement work started earlier this month at the vacant buildings. [Read more…]

Last Applewood Apartments tenant moves out Friday

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applewood-apartments-1-oct-7-2016

The last tenant of the Applewood Apartments on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle moved out Friday, Oct. 7, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 8:55 a.m. Oct. 12.

The last tenant of the Applewood Apartments was moving out Friday when Oak Ridge Today stopped by for an update.

Tenants had been told in early August that the apartments would close September 30.

On Monday, property owner Joe Levitt said he decided in the last 90-120 days to shut down the 13 apartment buildings on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle and board them up. He said it was his understanding that the last tenant was moving out this past Friday.

Levitt said he is 85 and has had health problems, and he’s trying to clean up his estate. Most of his estate will probably go to the University of Tennessee and nonprofit organizations, Levitt said.

“I’ve outlived all the people I need to take care of,” he said. [Read more…]

Four Applewood Apartment buildings still ‘unfit,’ not vacated, attorney says

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Applewood Apartments at 105 Hunter Circle

A city board declared four buildings on Hunter Circle to be unfit for human occupation or use in November 2010 and, after a Tennessee Court of Appeals opinion, reaffirmed the decision in March 2013. The case has been appealed back to the appellate court.

KNOXVILLE—More than three years after they were declared “unfit,” four dilapidated Applewood Apartment buildings have still not been vacated, an attorney said Thursday.

The Anderson County Chancery Court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals have both affirmed a November 2010 decision by an Oak Ridge board declaring the dilapidated buildings on Hunter Circle to be unfit for human occupation and use—and calling for them to be vacated immediately, attorney Dan Pilkington said.

The 2010 decision was reaffirmed by the city board, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals, in March 2013, Pilkington said.

“We believe that this order is final,” he said in a 15-minute oral argument before a three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Knoxville on Thursday. “Despite that, the buildings have never been vacated.”

The 2010 Oak Ridge board hearing was held after notices were issued citing multiple deficiencies that were hazardous to tenants, said Pilkington, who works for Knoxville law firm Watson, Roach, Batson, Rowell, and Lauderback. That company represented the City of Oak Ridge in Thursday’s oral argument before a three-judge panel that included John W. McClarty, D. Michael Swiney, and D. Kelly Thomas Jr. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge: 4,000 lose power, 70 homes damaged

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Wadsworth Circle Home Tree

One of two trees that fell on a home on West Wadsworth Circle. The second tree, visible on the ground in the background, punched a hole in the roof and displaced a mother, grandmother, and two children.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:40 p.m.

Roughly 4,000 customers lost power in the Tuesday evening storm, and about 70 damaged homes will require repairs by an electrician before power can be restored, an Oak Ridge official said Wednesday morning.

Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs said he doesn’t recall ever having 70 homes damaged in one storm, although the Electric Department has experienced worse storms when many utility poles were broken. But the brief, fierce Tuesday storm, which brought severe winds and driving rain, was significant in terms of its damage to homes and its far-reaching nature, from Blair Road on the west end of town to east Oak Ridge and beyond—into Clinton and Anderson County, Suggs said.

“It was pretty widespread,” Suggs said.

Janet Bowker on Plymouth Circle and Storm Debris

Janet Bowker, left, walks through debris on Plymouth Circle in front of her home, where a tree fell into her bedroom during the Tuesday evening storm. Her home is at right but not visible in this picture. There were no injuries, but Bowker does not have power now.

 

The storm, which ripped through Oak Ridge at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, left a trail of debris: scattered branches and limbs, broken trees, fallen power lines, and damaged buildings and homes. It also triggered a flood of calls to the city’s 911 call dispatch center.

About 500 customers remained without power around noon Wednesday, including the 70 damaged homes. [Read more…]

Car burns on Hillside Road

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Hillside Road Car Fire

A car caught fire on Hillside Road near Hunter Circle on Saturday morning. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A car caught fire on Hillside Road at about 11:43 a.m. Saturday.

The car’s owner was driving west on Hillside Road near Hunter Circle when smoke started coming out from under the dash after she turned off her heater, an Oak Ridge Fire Department report said. She unlatched the hood and her passenger disconnected the battery, but the car, owned by Louise Long of Oliver Springs, had already started to burn.

By the time firefighters arrived, the passenger compartment was on fire, the report said. They were able to extinguish it with a water hose. [Read more…]

After board declares them unfit, city posts ‘Danger’ signs on four Applewood buildings

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Applewood Apartments Danger Signs

The Oak Ridge municipal staff has posted yellow “Danger” signs on units at four Applewood Apartment buildings on Hunter Circle.

A few days after a city board declared them unfit, the Oak Ridge municipal staff posted yellow “Danger” signs on four Applewood Apartment buildings on Hunter Circle, officials said.

Posted on Tuesday, the placards say the 48 apartment units have been deemed unfit for human occupation or use, said Denny Boss, Oak Ridge code enforcement supervisor. The notices cannot be removed until the structures are repaired or demolished.

Joe Levitt, the Knoxville attorney who owns the apartments, disagrees that they are dangerous.

“The buildings are in satisfactory engineering and architectural condition,” he said Thursday. “There’s no question about that.” [Read more…]

Board reaffirms decision to declare four Applewood buildings ‘unfit’

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Applewood Apartments Board Hearing

Jim Odle of Odle and Young Architects in Knoxville shows a picture of a repair during a Thursday code enforcement hearing on four Applewood Apartments buildings. Also pictured at front center is Joe Levitt, owner of the apartment complex.

With no objections from members, a city board on Thursday reaffirmed a decision from more than two years ago to declare four Applewood Apartment buildings unfit for human occupation and use, and declare them nuisances.

Joe Lee, a member of the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals, said the board’s November 2010 decision on the four buildings on Hunter Circle has already been upheld by the Anderson County Chancery Court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

It wasn’t immediately clear what might happen next, including whether apartment owner Joe Levitt, a Knoxville attorney, might appeal the decision, and whether the city might issue an order to vacate the buildings. [Read more…]

Board will consider ‘unfit’ designations for four Applewood buildings

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A Tennessee appellate court has sent an order to demolish four Applewood Apartment buildings back to a municipal board, and that board is scheduled to consider “unfit for human occupation and use” designations—but not demolitions—during a Thursday afternoon meeting.

The Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals had ordered the four buildings on Hunter Circle demolished on Nov. 11, 2010. The order was upheld by the Anderson County Chancery Court, but Applewood Apartments owner Joseph J. Levitt Jr., a Knoxville attorney, appealed. [Read more…]