Although Alta Mill is by far not the worst apartment complex in this area of Austell, it is still not a place that I would recommend. When we first moved in, we dealt with a nice woman who has since been promoted to regional manager and is no longer available at the office. The rest of the staff, though polite to our faces, seems to be slightly incompetent. We had several problems with the deposit checks, as one of the staff was too incompetent to charge us the correct amount for our deposits the first time around. We??re also highly suspicious of our water bill, as we find it hard to believe that we are using that much water every month??

The Pro??s of Alta Mill:
1. We are very close to the Cobb hospital, a police station, and fire station, which are both a blessing and a curse. Of course, in the event of an emergency, we don??t have to worry about being too far away for an ambulance or fire truck to reach us in time; however, we often have to hear every single sirened vehicle in the county go flying by our complex at all hours of the day and night.
2. We are very close to shopping complexes including a Target, Walgreens, Khol??s, Goody??s, Walmart, Kroger, and Publix.
3. There is a red light from Anderson Mill Road to Austell Road, which is very nice. Unfortunately, Austell road is often so backed up in the mornings, that it makes very little difference having a red light.
4. The floor plan that we chose is pretty nice. We particularly like our kitchen and the huge pantry that came with it. We wish it was more open, though, and the sunroom gets very hot during both the summer and winter.
5. Most of the time we get left alone, which is nice. We??ve rarely been bothered by neighbors, solicitors, or even the office staff. In fact, the only time anyone (besides a solicitor) has come to our door was when the entirety of Austell managed to lose power, and our neighbor came over to ask if we, too, had lost power.

The Con??s of Alta Mill:
1. Even though all of the power, including the oven, is electric, and we have high efficiency bulbs in all of our lights, we still manage to use an abnormal amount of electricity for a 900 square foot apartment. We??re as suspicious about that as we are of our water bill??
2. We pay for a gated community; however, the gate rarely works. In fact, it was out of service for over 3 months, and we were not informed that it was even broken. If there is a bad storm, the gates simply shut off, and anybody who??s not home gets stuck outside. Luckily, that particular night, the exit gate was still working. People had to dart very quickly through the out gate just to get home. Also, again, we pay for a ??gated?? community, I??ve found two rather large holes in the gate, which are both big enough for literally a group of people to walk through.
3. We do not feel safe here. When we first moved in, we received a nice little letter from the office stating that someone in the community had tried to set fire to both the laundry room and the exercise room. The same week, there were two attempted break-ins. The office staff claimed that the police were reviewing security tapes, but as far as we know, no one was ever arrested. It seems like the police are here at least once every two weeks. There are often shouting matches in the breeze-ways and parking lots. There have been two fights, one of which resulted in someone getting pushed through the exercise room window. One night, we were out walking, and we actually witnessed a group of teenagers jump the fence to the pool and throw in a lawn chair before the group disappeared through one of the fence holes. Sometimes, usually Friday and Saturday nights, we??ll walk downstairs to our cars at about 1:00 AM and see a black car with tinted windows parked in front of our building. The car is always running with someone inside with the windows cracked and the smell of marijuana is usually wafting through the air. We??re also highly suspicious of some of our neighbors who never seem to leave to go to jobs, yet make enough money to pay about $700 in rent every month plus utilities??
4. The parking is not as bad in front of our building, but in other areas of the complex, people have to park next to curbs and behind other people??s cars because there isn??t enough room. There is only one handicapped parking spot in front of our building, and someone, who isn??t handicapped, is usually parked in it. This isn??t because there is nowhere else to park, but because they are simply too inconsiderate and lazy to park farther down the lot. The summer was horrible, because we live in the building near the pool. People would drive their cars up to the front of the complex to go the pool and park in front of our building, so we??d be stuck with nowhere to park. Plus, it??s not uncommon for people to park so close to the curb that the front-end of their car is actually hanging over and killing the grass.
5. For the first couple of months, the trash compactor was always full and spilling out onto the sidewalk. It smelled horrible and would be full for several days at a time. It hasn??t been as bad lately, though. Also, it is not uncommon for people to bring their old furniture and appliances up to the trash compactor instead of taking it to the dump, so everyone else gets to see their old broken tables and microwaves. It??s also not uncommon for people to just put their trash bags outside their door and leave them there for several days. I??ve even had the unpleasant experience of finding a whole bag full of trash strewn over the road and sidewalk one day. Apparently, the bag fell off someone??s car, and they were too lazy and inconsiderate to clean it up. We often find beer bottles and half eaten chicken wings thrown all over the grounds. The chicken wings are particularly annoying because dogs love them, but they splinter, so I have to take special care to make sure my dog doesn??t find one while we??re out walking. And speaking of dogs, I think we??re the only ones who actually clean up our dog??s poop every time he goes. There is dog poop everywhere all over the grounds even though there are several ??doggy pots?? with trash cans and bags available for anyone to use.
6. There are almost always children and teenagers running around unsupervised wrecking havoc. They leave their bikes everywhere, and they use the volleyball court as a sandbox (we haven??t been able to use it once since we moved in). The summer was the worst. I could hardly find a quiet time to walk my dog without a group of teenagers making certain to ride their bikes or skateboards around us just to get my dog to bark at them. One little brat even made it his hobby to follow us around and bark at my dog just to agitate him. His mother was never to be seen during the frustrating four weeks of this behavior.
7. The apartment is always dusty even though we clean on a regular basis. There are a couple of reasons why. (1) For some stupid reason, they painted the walls with a sprayer, so there is still little bits of paint flying around even after 9 ?? months. We still can??t vacuum without clogging the vacuum cleaner full of beige paint. In fact, we bought a brand new vacuum cleaner before we moved in, and we??ll have to buy a new one when we leave because this one??s ruined from all of the paint. (2) The apartment provides air filters. They are only changed quarterly and with the cheapest air filter possible (the ones that look like stretched out SOS pads and are about $0.97). We??ve tried to find a better air filter to replace it with, but they??re cut to such a weird size, that it??s proven impossible to find one. By the time the filter gets changed, it and the air duct are completely black. Dust piles up on everything even though I try to dust at least once a week. It??s disgusting.
8. Although we can??t hear everything that goes on in our neighbor??s apartment, we can hear every little noise from the breezeway. Plus every Friday and Saturday night we get the pleasure of hearing whatever music our downstairs neighbor is listening to until about 2:00 in the morning. Also, if I stay home sick from work, I get to hear their music for half of the day. The bass is usually so loud, it vibrates the entire apartment. Not to mention, we can hear pretty much everything that goes on in the parking lot, too. There have been several days where we??ve had front row seats to couples squabbling, teenagers fighting, and police investigating domestic disturbances calls. Also, since we live so close to the gate entrance, we can hear every car that drives in or out of the complex, plus their usually unnecessarily loud and obnoxious music.

Overall, Alta Mill is not a wonderful place to live. We wouldn??t recommend it, and we can??t wait to move out.

User Responses
From: FinallyMovin2ATL	Date: 02/15/2007
This was my number one choice of places to visit during my trip to Atlanta for apartment hunting. When I talked to Marie she emphasized almost everything your complaint. The gate always works, total electric makes for a smaller bill, etc. Maybe she read your complaints before I talked to her. But thank you because the gated part is definitely a deal breaker for me. I don't want to pay for things that don't work!!!

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