CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Charleston developer has agreed to retrofit 750 apartments to make them accessible to persons with disabilities.
The U.S. Justice Department announced the settlement late Thursday with Doug Pauley. The Justice Department said Pauley had 30 complexes built in the Kanawha Valley area but many of the apartments in them cannot be used by the disabled.
The Justice Department said the corrective action includes “replacing cabinets in bathrooms and kitchens to provide sufficient room for wheelchair users, reducing door threshold heights, replacing excessively sloped portions of sidewalks and installing properly sloped curb ramps that allow persons with disabilities access to sidewalks from the parking areas.”
Pauley and the companies he’s involved with have also agreed to establish a $100,000 settlement fund for disabled residents who were impacted by the accessibility violations. Pauley will also pay a $10,000 civil penalty.
The Justice Department said residents who believe they’ve been impacted by Pauley’s previous actions of discrimination when it came to their housing should contact the Justice Department toll-free at 1-800-896-7743 mailbox # 9993 or e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov .
Pauley’s projects have been in the news before. Back in 2012 the federal government was investigating the use of federal stimulus money that Pauley had received for his apartment projects through the West Virginia Housing Development Fund. Pauley cooperated with a federal grand jury that was investigating his purchase of property from state Treasurer John Perdue in 2010.