(PUEBLO, Colo.) — The Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority (PURA) is taking a big leap in the battle against abandoned or damaged properties with its new spot blight removal program.
Although the city council still needs to approve the new program, PURA plans to target abandoned and severely damaged properties that have been a challenge for the city’s east side and Bessemer areas. The program aims to reclaim and restore vacant properties, to help the city grow by reinvesting in these neighborhoods.
“We are better off as a community to address these burnt-out houses and these vacant properties immediately,” said Jerry Pacheco, Executive Director of PURA. “We can’t let them linger because of the damage that it does to values on the block. It’s that effort that we’re trying to present to the city council and get their support, identify various funding mechanisms to undertake this activity.”
If the program launches, PURA will take over ownership of properties that are burned or boarded up and replace them with affordable housing, community spaces, or even public art installations.
“We’re making incremental improvement right now,” Pacheco said. “We built some duplexes in one of these particular areas, which has the highest concentration of poverty and it has the highest location of minority rental and home ownership.”
While PURA could not give FOX21 News a total number of properties they are looking to revitalize, they said it’s only a matter of time before the community notices a change.
“There are some particular neighborhoods where it’s not uncommon to have a situation that we’re talking about, if not on every block, every other block in a certain small geographic area, and so I think for us with this intervention program, you can start noticing some changes in a relatively short period,” Pacheco said.
As the program takes shape, spot blight program leaders are aware there is a controversial side to all of this.
“Any time you’re talking about seizing somebody’s property for the greater good of the community, some folks don’t like that,” Pacheco explained. “Bottom line is their use or misuse of the property that allowed it to get into the condition has negatively affected the property values and the rights of the neighbors next to these things, so I don’t necessarily have that much sympathy.”
As the city prepares for the potential launch of the program, spot blight leaders are still in the process of gathering and identifying additional areas to begin with. From there, they will head to the city council at the end of the month to get the green light.
