Despite the shared concern, the path forward to remedy the eyesores remains unclear.
The topic of “urban blight” was taken up at a recent City Council workshop, a discussion initiated by concerned Cortez resident Dick Rudolph.
“When approaching from the south, we have abandoned buildings, graffiti, an empty CDOT weigh-station, billboards... the entry ways to the city aren’t the only places we see blight,” said Rudolph, mentioning off-highway and in-neighborhood aesthetic issues that bring down the appeal the whole town, he said. “What message are we sending? Are we that complacent that we don’t see what this looks like?”
Blight and code violations
Despite the visual unpleasantness of a vacant building’s boarded-up windows and, in some cases, graffiti-splotched facades, the city can’t take action unless the property in question is a threat to public health and safety, said city building inspector Sam Proffer and part-time code inspector Bob Lindvall, who attended the workshop. In terms of in-neighborhood blight, the two-person code enforcement team is working at full-speed, he said.
In 2014, there were 60 code enforcement actions filed, 146 code enforcement inspections, 14 code-related municipal summons, and two buildings condemned. Code violations range from grass citations on to electrical and structural deficiencies on both residential and commercial properties.
The inspectors are charged with the task of enforcing code in all neighborhoods around the city, a job they say has resources stretched thin.
“The actual amount of time this takes is extensive,” said Proffer. “A simple weed violation can have 12 pages of documentation attached to it. There are a lot of properties we’d like to address; we know there are a lot of buildings and areas that need to be addressed, but some are a long process. We’re doing our best with the time we have, but I think it would take more than extra manpower.”
Solutions?
Reasons why building new is often more favorable for developers instead of redeveloping existing, vacant properties is multifaceted, but it’s generally considered cheaper to build new than to retrofit an existing space.
“It’s the whole brownsfield versus green field thing. Any site that’s been used with a building on it, there’s often perception that they may be more expensive to renovate,” said Hale. “There could be a perception that there’s an environmental hazard there, that’s not always the truth. There’s a perception that an existing building causes more headaches than building new, that’s not always the truth. It’s a challenge.”
The abandoned M&M gas station and family restaurant on U.S. 491 and County Road G is a frequent complaint, Hale says. The property, which is actually in county jurisdiction has been vacant since 2001.
In August 2014, a representative of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment met with the County Commission on possible environmental cleanup programs that could help with the cost of redeveloping the gas station. In 1993, a fuel leak was detected at the M&M but it was never dealt with. Since then, it has become a pollution concern and a candidate for brownsfield funding that has yet to be tapped by its private owner. In August, the Cortez Journal reported that the owner of the site was letting the property go back into a tax lien sale, as it was uneconomical for him to redevelop it.
In terms of mitigating cost for other redevelopment projects, some larger municipalities in Colorado have found success in combating blight by forming Urban Renewal Authorities.
Urban renewal authorities (URAs) are created by city governments to redevelop areas within their jurisdiction that are found to contain blight or slum conditions, according to the Colorado Municipal League. URAs require public participation to attract redevelopment wherein the majority of the funding comes from the private sector and a public investment comes from tax increment financing (TIF). When a project begins, the amount of property tax or municipal sales tax revenue collected within the authority which is the increased. The theory is that the new revenue is generated by the increased property values.
Hale says that because of Cortez’s small size and rural geography, forming an authority might not be the most effective route, especially since they generally target one area or neighborhood as a project.
“Most small cities don’t go with it because it does feel like a big city tactic,” said Hale. “They generally do more politically sensitive stuff. The number one goal is to rehabilitate an area, which has good and the bad that comes with it. The good is you get a vacant building redeveloped, but the bad is you end up with surrounding property owners that feel like they’re dealt with more heavy-handed.”
A better alternative he suggested was working with developers on an individual basis to secure tax credits and fee discounts to make the cost of redevelopment more attainable.
“Something we can do as a city to incentivize this,” said Hale. “I really don’t know what’s keeping these properties from being redeveloped. ... We are being more proactive, and contacting property owners and putting the bee in their bonnet asking ‘what’s going on here?’ ... I think if they hear what the city can bring to the table maybe city staff could come to the council to approve (tax credit, fee discount) but I think right now something like that could be premature.”
