By The Associated Press
Birmingham city officials have settled a lawsuit they filed in June against an apartment complex, accusing the owner of maintaining a public nuisance.
The city in a Friday news release announced the settlement with Steele Valley Brook LLC, the company that owns the Monarch Ridge Apartments on the northeastern edge of the city.
The owner agreed to pay $15,000 to the city’s neighborhood revitalization fund, keep using a license plate reader and sharing data with Birmingham police and make the complex’s surveillance system accessible to the police department’s crime center.
The owner will also employ a gate guard from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, keep using off-duty Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies for security patrols and cooperate with the city on a 90-day study of whether different security measures are needed.
The city will dismiss its lawsuit with the court enforcing the settlement for one year.
When the city sued, it said police officers had responded to at least two homicides and four other gun-related incidence since February 7.
City Attorney Nicole King said the city has successfully closed nine nuisance cases since the spring of 2020.
