The Aurora City Council could vote on an amendment next week adding a new vacancy and foreclosure registration system to its property code.
Aldermen, acting as a Committee of the Whole, this week passed the amendment on to the full City Council agenda for 6 p.m. Feb. 9.
“The end goal is to ultimately reduce the number of vacancies in the city of Aurora,” Alex Voigt, a management analyst in the mayor’s office, told aldermen. “It would preserve property values … protect neighborhoods … and promote a high quality of life.”
The expansion would include more of a financial incentive to property owners to get their buildings occupied, and an incentive to develop a marketing plan or strategy to potential occupants – possibly with help from the city.
Under the new proposal, the ordinance would kick in when a building has been vacant for six months, but would start in earnest when a building has been vacant for two years. After a six-month grace period, the owner of a vacant building would have to pay a $250 registration fee with the city, and pay $250 every six months up to two years.
At the point the building has been vacant for two years, the city would ask the property owner to create a marketing plan or strategy for the property. The city would even help, referring the property owner to Invest Aurora , the city’s nonprofit redevelopment corporation.
If the property owner creates a marketing plan or strategy at the two-year mark, it buys another year of registration at $250 every six months. Absent a plan, it would be $500 every six months.
After a building has been vacant for three years, city officials again would ask for a plan. With a plan, a property owner would pay $250 every six months; absent a plan, it would be $500 every six months.
While it appears most aldermen support the tighter registration rules, several questioned why the city isn’t distinguishing between residential and commercial properties, and also if the new, higher fees would punish responsible property owners.
Several Realtors and real estate agents in town have been posing the same questions during the past week or so. They have said the fees are high, and do not provide a financial incentive, but rather punishment.
Voigt said the ordinance “doesn’t seek to punish people.” Voigt said it puts the onus to fill the buildings more on the property owner, than on the city and the taxpayers.
City officials do not want a repeat of a situation from several years ago, where the city had to spend $1.3 million to tear down the old West Aurora High School building because it sat vacant so long it deteriorated beyond repair.
City officials also have gotten backing from the Fire Department and Police Department, who are interested in the safety of their first responders when there is an emergency call at a vacant building.
