Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992 TAG: 9201040189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Laurence Hammack
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DEVELOPERS MUST PAY TO FIX STORM DRAINS
A Roanoke judge has ordered two developers to pay nearly $300,000 to repair a storm drainage system in a condominium complex that was built in violation of city building codes.Circuit Judge Roy Willett ruled that developers Ray Alouf and Douglas McCullough must pay for $295,262 worth of improvements to a drainage system at Windward condominiums near Tanglewood Mall.
In a four-day trial last year, Willett ruled the developers violated city codes and regulations in building a storm drainage system that often resulted in flooding at the complex.
Residents of the 116-unit complex have long complained about the flooding problem.
A hearing Friday - held to determine how much the developers must pay - ended a longstanding dispute in which the city took the unusual step of going to court.
City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said the city filed suit not to collect a large judgment, but to see that building codes are enforced. "The direct beneficiaries [of Willett's ruling] are the Windward residents," he said.
Money for the improvements likely will be held in a separate account, rather than turned over to the city, while details of who will do the work are finalized, he said.
Dibling said experts for the city had estimated the costs of a new drainage system to be slightly more than $300,000. But Edward Natt, an attorney who represented McCullough and Alouf, called his own expert witness who cited an estimate of about $160,000.
At the trial, the developers maintained that they had received approval from the city for their plans throughout the project.
But city officials said they were not notified of plans for work on a system that included underground pipes made of inadequate plastic material, that were installed improperly and that they were too small to deal with storm runoff.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.