I have been living in a two bedroom two bath apartment home for 7 months now. I'd like to give my honest opinion about these apartments because I know how people can exaggerate. I feel like noise is not an issue in my building. I think I lucked out with good neighbors at my location.
It does smell pretty bad at times due to the mounds of bark right next door to the front of the complex. I live in the back and can still smell it. The first couple of months the ponds were layered with a disgusting film, because they did not have the fountains running to circulate the water. I don't know if this was a coincidence or the cause of getting the fountains started, but I had a package delivered to me by Fed-ex one day and the woman delivering it complained about the smell and the ponds. I honestly thought she was exaggerating, but she was very serious about it being a health issue especially for kids who are curious and want to go play in the pond. Literally a half hour after she left, the fountains were turned on and they have been running ever since.
Maintenance I think does an awesome job. I've had a couple issues that needed to be taken care of, and they were very quick to fix them. They've always been nice to me, so I don't have a problem with them. Not to mention they are well understaffed for such a large complex that I think they work very hard. They try to keep trash on the ground and dog poop to a minimum, but some residents are too lazy to walk to the dumpster (there are plenty around, so there's no excuse not to throw your garbage in the dumpster-they do not recycle though for those that are extremely adamant about recycling) or clean up after their dogs. I saw a baby stroller in one of the ponds once. Come on people.
I have noticed some sketchy areas of the complex, but like I said I think I lucked out with my location. My boyfriend's car has been broken into a couple of times. His stereo was stolen the first, but the second time he didn't have anything in his car for them to take. If you don't have a car with an alarm system, then I would be careful about moving here. It seems like the older cars with no alarm systems are typically the targets. Management may say that they just got new management and are taking care of all those issues (they told me that and then 3 months later when I got new neighbors they told them the same thing), but I honestly think that's just one of the first things they are told to memorize and say to future or concerned residents. I think that's what they are told to say in any complex, however.
As far as the apartment itself, I like the fact that it's not all bright white and that they paint the inside a nice sand color to give the complex some depth. I live on the top floor, so I have vaulted ceilings and love it. The porch is kind of nasty, because they put this carpet over the wood and it gets moldy and dirty very quickly, so I covered it with some outdoor rugs. The stairways and hallways outside are like that too and it can get slippery when it rains due to the mold. I've almost fallen a couple of times. They are very pet friendly which is a good thing, because I have two dogs. My dogs seem to enjoy the place. I like having a washer/dryer in my unit, and they work great. The second bedroom (my square footage is 890) is kind of small, but it's the perfect space for my boyfriend's "man cave" if you will. The kitchen is nicely sized, and I love having a double sink. Our oven works great (trust me, I love to cook and bake). We have lots of cupboard space that I had a hard time filling all of it up (take into consideration only my boyfriend and I live in this unit). I love having a wood burning fire place. There really isn't much storage space. The water heater is in the storage, which takes up most of it. We could only fit our broken down moving boxes in it. It was very clean when we moved in. They do allow you to paint the walls if you'd like and you don't have to worry about painting them back when you move out. To be honest, I do love our apartment all-in-all.
The only issue I have really is with management. We now pay them directly a flat fee per month for our water. We get a bill in the mail that gives us the due date which is the first of every month. Ever since they started doing this, we have had nothing but problems. Every month every one gets a notice on their door saying that they will be evicted within three days if they do not pay their water bill, because it's late. However, according to our actual bill and what they told us from the beginning, the water bill isn't due for another few days. I've gone to management a couple of times and have been told to ignore it, but it's ridiculous that they are continuing to do this. It irritates me, because I always pay our bills early, so to tell me and the rest of the residents we're late when we're not and threaten eviction on us when it's not necessary is kind of demeaning in a way. The other thing I have an issue with is their notices. I am sitting in our apartment with no running water. First of all (it states this in the contract as well), when the complex has planned to shut the water off in a certain section of the property or anything related to that type of situation, they have to give the residents a 24 hour notice. We were given the notice a half hour before they turned the water off. Not only that, but they told us that the water would be turned back on by 4 PM. It is 8:15 PM and our building and another still has no water. We asked the workers when we could get water back around 6 PM and they said "25 minutes." Still no running water, so we asked again, and they are now saying they do not know. You don't realize how important water is to have until you don't. I had to use the rest of the water in my water bottle to brush my teeth this morning. I use tap water to drink, because I believe buying bottled water is a waste, so now I have no water to drink or to give my pets to drink, etc. I've tried calling the complex many times between the hours of 4-6 PM tonight to try and ask when we will have water back, but of course, no one picked up (they are supposed to be in until 7 PM). It seems like every time there is an issue like this that concerns a bunch of residents, management makes it difficult to get a hold of, because they don't want to deal with it(that's the way it seems). I'm hoping we get some sort of discounted water bill, even if it is just a couple bucks, but it's about caring about the residents and making sure their living arrangements are comfortable and that they like living where they do.
Last thing to comment on is their fitness center is kind of a joke. All their equipment is extremely dangerous, because it's all old and broken in some shape or form, yet they do not replace it or prevent people from using it. When the geese and ducks have babies, watch where you walk-bird droppings EVERYWHERE. It's kind of gross when I walked my dogs and had to watch where I step between little mounds of bird droppings on the sidewalks. Not to mention if you have children, we all know they don't really pay attention to where they are walking/running. Who wants to have their kids covered in that and cleaning that up every time they come in from playing'

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