Aurora proposes taking over neglected commercial properties amid slum apartment furor

AURORA | Amid local and national furor over three ramshackle Aurora apartments, city lawmakers are favoring a new law that would allow the city to step in and manage derelict buildings.

“We want people to come into compliance,” said Councilmember Stephanie Hancock, the bill’s sponsor. “We want to make sure that our neighbors, the people who live in these communities, the folks who surround these communities, are safe and secure.”

The proposal, allowing the city to intervene in the management of residential and commercial properties that create public safety hazards, comes amid Aurora doing just that at three northwest Aurora apartment complexes. Those apartments have been the center of a national controversy over allegations of immigrant gangs overrunning the buildings, a narrative created by building owners and some city officials. Aurora police and city staff have repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that the complexes have been the scene of a multitude of criminal acts, including some committed by immigrants, and possibly immigrant gangs.

The controversy brought to light the difficulty the city has in ensuring some commercial and residential properties don’t fall into conditions that created similar havoc well underway.

The proposed ordinance for neglected and derelict buildings or properties would give the city the power to seek court-appointed receivership for properties, including single-family, multi-family and businesses, that pose serious health and safety threats and have violated city health and safety codes for at least six consecutive months. 

City lawmakers gave tentative approval to the measure at a Monday study session.

“Using the Dallas Street example, it was, well, over two years of documented neglect and abuse from the property owner,” Councilmember Crystal Murillo said, referring to one of the properties linked to the immigrant gang controversy in northwest Aurora. “This property owner has had issues elsewhere. So I think it was pretty well documented that it was an issue with the landlord and a lack of care in taking care of it.”

Murillo was referring to the Edge at Lowry, which had years of neglect and mismanagement before the property started to attract crime and became the notorious location for the viral video of men forcing their way into an apartment that started a national conversation about Venezuelan gangs in Aurora. 

The controversy eventually drew then-candidate Donald Trump for an Aurora campaign rally, highlighting conditions at the Edge. The president falsely claimed the building, and parts of the city, were overrun by the notorious Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua.

The city was unable to do anything to close the building for months after controversy erupted, even after the owners and property managers abandoned the building amid claims gang members had taken over the building and forced the owners out. 

The receiver, who would be appointed by a judge under the proposal, would be authorized to manage the property and carry out critical repairs. The costs that would then be recovered through liens placed against the property. That’s the process the city is using now amid The Edge complex and two other similar buildings.

“What we’re looking for is compliance,” said John Wesolowski, Deputy Director of Housing and Community Services. “Upon achieving compliance with city codes, the city will petition the district court to release the property from receivership and restore responsibility back to the order.” 

City officials said they are aware of an increasing number of commercial and multi-family properties where owners repeatedly ignore citations and refuse to address life-safety issues. 

“People will just keep on paying fines, keep on paying fines, and just go through the process, and it just sits and spins for us over and over and over,” Wesolowski said. 

Mayor Mike Coffman and the city staff pointed to a fire-damaged retail building that has sat vacant and without electricity for years, despite ongoing complaints, fines and code enforcement actions. Wesolowski said the owners live out of the country, they are hard to get a hold of and “they don’t care.”

Coffman has referred publicly to CBZ, owners of the Edge and two other northwest Aurora apartment complexes at the center of the national controversy, as “slumlords.”

Other properties across the city have been left boarded up, attracting vandalism, break-ins and becoming neighborhood eyesores, city officials said.

Some city lawmakers said they were concerned city officials could abuse the new powers, harassing commercial property owners.

The ordinance would only be used in rare, extreme situations, likely affecting fewer than five properties annually, only after property owners have been given ample opportunity to fix the issues themselves, according to City Attorney Pete Schulte. Before petitioning the court, the city would require a detailed remediation plan from the owner and allow them time to bring the property into compliance.

“We’re trying to do something in the middle between a criminal nuisance and nothing,” Schulte said. 

Provisions of the proposed ordinance include written notice of persistent code violations, a mandatory opportunity for property owners to submit a compliance plan, court intervention if violations persist for six months, the appointment of a receiver to oversee repairs and costs secured as liens and recovered through county assessments.

If owners fail to pay for repairs made by the court-appointed receiver, the city will be able to collect those costs through special assessments, ensuring taxpayers are not left footing the bill.

Some council members remained skeptical.

“My concern is that this will be weaponized against certain properties and not other properties, and selectively enforced,” Councilmember Curtis Gardner said. “We have to be cautious and ensure that this isn’t used selectively.”

Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky reiterated those concerns, saying that she felt the city was unfair to the landlords at the Edge at Lowry because the police were not responding to police calls at the location, a repeated allegation that police have denied, providing records of calls for service. 

Jurinsky has routinely promoted, on national Fox News programs and in local media, the unsubstantiated narrative that Venezuelan gangs were responsible for health and safety conditions at the three suspect apartment complexes. Aurora police and city staff have repeatedly denied the narrative, providing records of their response and showing critical problems at the apartments before immigrants began occupying apartment units.  

Hancock and Schulte said they were open to adding safeguards and including exceptions for cases where criminal activity or other hardships may prevent an owner from maintaining their property.

The proposal was moved to a future council meeting, where it must pass two separate readings before it can be enacted.