Vacant Property Fee Focuses on the Lesser Problem

Lakewood City Council has set new penalty fees for vacant property owners in Lakewood. Some vacant land has been elevated to the level of a public nuisance because of the homeless encampments on them. However, camps on private property are a relatively new and lesser phenomenon than camps on public property. Public homeless camps have been increasing in Lakewood news for years, as Denver homeless have been expanding into Lakewood. Public encampments are so prevalent that they are increasingly being found on private property. The increased crime and poor economy has led to a downward spiral of vacant properties. So Lakewood has instituted fines on a property owner for having vacant land. Did Lakewood focus on the lesser private problem instead of addressing the larger public problem and is this an adequate alternative to hiring more police officers?

Public Homeless Camps 2013-Oct, 2020

In 2020, Lakewood first started posting notices for private property. As shown below, they made a significant number of private property notices over two months, but it was still not as common as public camps. The temptation for Lakewood will now be to pursue these private properties to bring in revenue from fines at the expense of cleaning up the larger public property problem.

Many properties in Lakewood have been vacant for years, with no crime problem, but since economic development has stagnated, these owners are left with property the owners would like to have in productive use but that option isn’t available at this time. So now property owners will be fined for a condition that is already not of their choosing, making it harder to sell the property as well.

As of January 22, 2024, each vacant property owner must pay the city $700 every six months if the property is vacant and $800 for every emergency service call. The purpose of the fines is to incentivize property owners to find a renter faster or take their own security precautions.

It is important to note that these taxpayers already pay for city and emergency services but the city is now charging extra. This may disincentivize new buyers from investing in Lakewood for long-term buy and hold strategies.

At the City Council retreat on March 2, Mayor Wendi Strom commented that using city funds to demolish vacant private property was better than pursuing more police hires when Lakewood has still not hired to full staff capacity.

In the end, if the city cannot control the larger issue of camps on public property, what are private owners to do differently?

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