Vacant property owners in Lakewood set to pay new fees amid concerns about impact to community

The former Blue Sky Motel along West Colfax Avenue closed its doors to guests years ago, leaving a shell of a building behind.

"I think once you buy a property there are some responsibilities that come with it," Mohammad Raeouf said.

Raeouf owns Infinite Auto across the street and has raised his concerns about the now-vacant building.

"It may bring more crimes and more bad things to the neighborhood so we would like it to be occupied," Raeouf added.

The City of Lakewood agrees and passed an ordinance last July to better track properties like the former Blue Sky Motel and their impact to the community, a change that started this month.

Lakewood Economic Development Director Robert Smith says they have identified roughly two dozen properties.

"What happens to it, it becomes a magnet for crime. That's the bottom line. That's what happens to it -- you have graffiti, you have squatters, you have vagrancy ... folks breaking into the building," Smith said.

The Lakewood City Council just recently approved fees to go with that ordinance: owners of commercial property vacant for more than 30 days in Lakewood must register and pay a fee of $700 every six months.

On top of the registration fee, council members also approved an $800 service response fee for emergency calls to that property.

"Fees in Colorado have to be proportionate to the amount of service that you have to provide in order to maintain the program so it's really a revenue-neutral thing for the city," Smith added.

In the eight years he's been selling used cars, Raeouf says those vacant properties do impact his operation and he's looking forward to seeing some change.

"New development helps the neighborhood and as for us, the future nobody is aware of what's going to happen, but we are hoping for the best," he said.

The ordinance is part of a bigger "distressed property program" in Lakewood,  where the city can, in some cases, purchase the property or help developers demolish old buildings with the help of funds from a loan program.

Lakewood now owns that former motel and has plans to demolish it within the next month.