Camden Sea Palms - Good place
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
7/2/2004
Years at this apartment:
2003
-
2004
This will be half review, half facts-as-I-see-them, coming from a 24 yr old who prefers quiet foremost, cleanliness second, and amenity luxury third.
There are two sides to the parking issue. Yes, visitor parking is extremely limited. If you pay your rent faithfully, and are generally a good tenant that brings no burdens onto the staff, they WILL work with you regarding *unofficial* assigned parking. Nothing guaranteed, and nothing permanent, but enough to relieve major headaches if your and your roommate schedules fall completely out of line with visitor parking availability. Parking is otherwise a non-issue, as each apt does have it's own assigned space(s). If your guests come at around or before 5pm, you should be okay. Don't expect visitor parking afterward though. You can always park on the street.
I drove a 96 sports car, nothing fancy, but after about the second week of parking on the street one of my tires was stabbed in the sidewall - irrepairable.
The area does suck. A failed experiment at some sort of randomized transition between Newport Blvd business and the lower classes. The "diamond in the rough" quip was slightly misused, as this place does truly shine against it's backdrop, requiring no improvement to do so. That says little, but don't judge this place solely on the locale. It is a true exception to the scenery.
I'm extremely sensitive to noise, and have only had a few instances when I was bothered by such. Maybe 3 or 4 in my year of stay. Absolutely an A in this dept. My roommates had more complaints than me, as their room wasn't as isolated as mine. I'm getting the sense that the quiet atmosphere is changing however, as some younger seemingly jobless people have been moving in as of late. 6 months ago I would've told you that you'd have guaranteed quiet here, but I can't do that today.
One neighbor, present in the middle of our stay, was kicked out about 2 months after coming in. They were loud stupid kids, and many people complained about them (including my roommates). Management took action, and after they failed to show up for a hearing were promptly evicted. That manager is unfortunately no longer located at this Camden property (a promotion transfer), and noise has steadily increased since. Some of the quieter family-oriented folk are moving on to better things.
The maintenance crew is exceptional, as good as it gets. Few things have needed repair in the past year, just a smoke detector battery, the garbage disposal, and one toilet. Small issues. The grounds speak of good maintenance care. They are nothing luxurious, but they are certainly nice.
If you require a good on-site gym to substitute a health club membership look elsewhere. Some equipment works, some things don't, it's limited in either case.
Some of the inside wiring is a bit shoddy, we have at least one dead phone jack (one definitely works, per required by law), the cabling is haphazardly run straight through one of the walls and into the back of one of the closets. It doesn't detract, but if you're into details such could bother you. The interiors are generally very nice, very clean, with slightly rough finishings for the detail-oriented person. We have a vaulted ceiling that makes for a very nice living space.
The carpet sucks. It's mildly plush, looks okay, ours was new, but the fibers seem to enjoy clogging up my vacuum's 90-degree hose bend. Vacuuming also reveals a large amount of white dust buried in the carpet, likely from the spray painter.
The property is gated, and the gates are scheduled to be open in the day and closed at night, but sometimes they are left open or broken. Have never seen anything criminal happen in the community. I think you're safe inside, but don't expect to jog at night like you can in Irvine.
We've had one great manager, one decent temp manager, and now a new manager that I will never know too much about. I get the sense that the quality of management care has declined, but I can give no fair review to the current manager. All I can say is that it has been great in the past, I just hope somebody sticks around long enough to care about the community as much as our first manager (Brett) did.
Note: Management has always been by Camden, it's just the staff that has fluctuated.
If quiet is not your top priority you will enjoy your time at the Sea Palms. If you prefer quiet like me, I can't say whether or not this is the place for you. It is still much quieter than the noisy communities that I am aware of (such as Villa Siena in Irvine). All in all my stay here was mostly positive, and can safely recommend it to anybody. The price is a bit much, but welcome to OC.
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