The Fort Collins Urban Renewal Authority is working to buy a north Fort Collins motel to address its history of blight, criminal incidents and chronic nuisance complaints. College Ave. The deal for the sale came after two months of negotiations, Smith said.
Ten of the rooms in the motel have been blocked off to the public due to methamphetamine contamination, according to a URA presentation. Inspection of the property during the due diligence period will look at mechanical and structural issues, along with environmental contamination, Smith said. What happens to the building after that is unclear.
If adaptive reuse isn't feasible, then the building could be demolished, Smith said. The motel is operational. When the Coloradoan called the motel on Tuesday, the person who answered the phone said reservations are not accepted and all available rooms are occupied. A Fort Collins ordinance lists 66 activities that qualify as a nuisance, including things that police respond to, like drug use or assault.
When a property has seen multiple activities in a given time frame, they are defined as having a chronic nuisance problem. The city then works with the property owner to abate the issues and can issue fines if that is unsuccessful. If that doesn't lead to resolution, the city can file a lawsuit against the property owner. A URA presentation stated that the motel property has had multiple code violations. The property far exceeded the threshold to be considered a chronic nuisance when it was deemed one in November , said Marcy Yoder, the city's neighborhood services director.
Six different offenses in resulted in multiple code violations related to weapons, controlled substances, criminal offenses against a person and controlled substances paraphernalia, Yoder told the Coloradoan.
