The Long-Term Viability Of Fast-Delivery Denver Apartment Buildings
by Luke Schmaltz
The Crane: Denver’s unofficial national bird.
Although the official Colorado state bird
is the Lark Bunting, it has seemingly been replaced across the greater Denver
metro area by the crane. For the past several years, the Mile-High City skyline
has become increasingly dotted with these towering industrial effigies — as
long-standing, recently demolished structures are replaced with mid-rise odes
to blandness. These rapidly erected residential buildings have earned
disparaging nicknames from journalists and pedestrian critics alike such as
fugly, McUrbanist, fast-casual architecture, contemporary contempt, LoMo (low
modern), blandmarks and spongebuild squareparts.
A New Development
More Cranes: The skyline at a familiar downtown Denver intersection undergoes alteration.
In 2015, Denver adopted the International
Building Code (IBC) which allows for podium-style mid-rise residential
buildings to be primarily constructed of wood rather than concrete and steel.
The new code meant that a two-story concrete base known as a “podium” could be
vertically succeeded by up to five levels of wood-framed construction. This, in
turn, opened the door for a host of money-saving dynamics such as unspecialized
labor, cost-effective raw materials and quicker completion timelines.
A Nationwide Trend
This generic approach to residential development is not unique to Denver, rather, it is a trend rearranging the personalities of inner cities from Seattle to Austin and Minneapolis to Charlotte. The rising costs of land, labor and certain building materials has made wood framing the default method of construction — allowing for the creation of a business model with an attractive bottom line even though the product itself is anything but.
Supply And Demand
Competing For Space: A crane competes with the Millennium Bridge for skyline space near Denver’s Confluence Park.
According to The Denver Post, area
developers had 26,916 apartment units under construction at the end of 2018,
with a projected minimum of 12,000 units to be built every year for the
foreseeable future. This number is dwarfed by projections from Cary Bruteig,
owner of Denver’s Apartment Insights, a data reporting company that expects
2019 apartment construction to render upward of 25,700 units in 2019.
The phenomenon of cheaply resourced,
quickly erected residential structures gives rise to the issue of longevity.
Will these light-frame, wood fortified dwellings with flat window facades and
multi-colored exterior panels maintain their appeal at the same price point
into the next decade? A surging demand for affordable housing meets that
question with a resounding “yes.” Yet, in the event of a recession or if cheap
construction proves to fail the test of time, these aesthetic atrocities may
prove to be the 21st Century equivalent of 19th century balloon-frame buildings
— which were defined as being poorly maintained, substandard housing for the
lowest social rung of tenancy just above homeless. Lest history forget, these
structures were reduced to ash in tragic events such as the San Francisco Fire
of 1851 and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
The Price Of Cost-Effective Construction
While lack of aesthetic appeal and inflated
prices brought on by high demand are obvious drawbacks, economically built wood
frame construction buildings also carry several subsurface concerns. Structures
of this sort are susceptible to moisture being drawn into wall cavities, where
it can become trapped and foster wood rot due to humidity and the growth of
mold. The latter, in turn, can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions from
occupants. Wood framed buildings are also known for attracting termites, having
low thermal mass (ability to retain heat), offering poor sound insulation
between units, being vulnerable to fire damage and emitting volatile organic
and chemical compounds which diminish indoor air quality.
Distractions Abound
Prominent: Not a Lark in sight, yet the crane is obtrusive.
In a preemptive strategy to counter this
possibility, many developments are attracting top dollar clientele by offering
deluxe, high-end amenities. Luxuries such as on-site car washes, dry cleaners,
full-range fitness centers, work-from-home office areas, dog runs, complementary
weekend brunches and valet trash services aim to disguise the fact that most
tenants are living in identical boxes built by unskilled workers laboring at
breakneck speed. These overpriced cookie cutter domiciles include few, if any
features which discern one unit from another and zero signs of craftsmanship,
personalization or style. Many excited tenants, however, are far too distracted
by innovative diversions such as goat yoga, Zen gardens, tanning beds,
old-school video arcades, bowling alleys and free beer.
High-End On The Rise
An abundance of amenities, perks, on-site
attractions, as well as the inimitable allure of being the first tenant in a
new apartment, all add to the exorbitant rental prices brought on by a high
demand for housing. A new rental in a high-end downtown Denver facility can run
pretty high — such as $7,000+ for 1,324 square feet at Union Denver to $15,000
or more per month for a penthouse suite at The Confluence. Of course, not all
rates are mouth-droppingly Manhattan-esque, as many units appeal to a more
philistine price point such as a studio at The Verve on Delgany for just $1,563
or a studio at the Country Club Towers on Bayaud for a mere $1,855.
A Long-Term Diagnosis
The professional opinion of master
carpenter Richard Welker sheds some long-term light on the subject of
sustainability. Welker, a longtime Denver resident who recently relocated to
Portland, has personally worked on hundreds of wood-frame apartment units. He
attests “lumber isn’t what it used to be, but long-term, you can always repair
the guts of something that is made of wood. Theoretically, if stringent
maintenance protocols are followed, these buildings could last a really long
time.” This statement clearly places long-term viability on building owners and
managers, and whether they continue to be inhabited long after their new veneer
has worn away depends on what, if any, aesthetic taste tenants may have.
Plainly put, if people are willing to pay to rent dwellings that are ugly and
overpriced, they will continue to dominate the rental marketplace and the
skylines of inner city, U.S.A.
Coworking Expands, Corporate HQs Replacing District Shops, Claim It’s Now Second Oldest Commercial Block
by Glen Richardson
Chewing Up Street: The Tavern space on Gaylord has been vacant for more than a year and is likely to be gobbled up by developers adding offices in lieu of restaurants.
This holiday season will be the last for
one of Denver’s oldest gift shops as the 45-year old Tender Thicket along Old
South Gaylord has lost its lease to a developer. It’s the conclusive indicator
that this is the end of an era for Denver’s second oldest historic district.
The Thicket’s home on Gaylord St. is close to 100 years old. — it’s historic —
but the neighborhood decided not to designate it that way and that applies to
all the stores along Gaylord.
Larimer Square is Denver’s only locally
protected historic district, designated in 1971 after a determined Dana Crawford
saved the block. Its historic designation was the first in Denver that
recognized not only individual historic buildings but a collection of buildings
and their setting.
The quaint Gaylord block in the heart of
Wash Park — between Mississippi and Tennessee Ave. — was, until the last couple
of years, home to unique shops but is shifting into a commercial block similar
to how Cherry Creek North is changing. Until recently area realtors could claim
Old South Gaylord was the embodiment of what a neighborhood should look like, a
historic district of inviting boutiques, art galleries and great restaurants.
Distressing Demolition
Coworking Expands: Grant Real Estate Co. purchased the building that housed the Thicket and the adjacent Edward Jones offices on the left and plans to bulldoze the building and add a second coworking space.
The Tender Thicket survived three moves,
four owners, a flood, economic ups and downs, but redevelopment will be its
final move. Grant Real Estate Co. owner Aaron Grant purchased the 5,500-sq.-ft.
building that houses the Thicket and adjacent Edward Jones building (now
vacant) for $2 million. At the same time in 2017 Grant purchased the building
at 1040 S. Gaylord for $2.9 million and converted it into Park Coworking that
is now open with 24 stations and 16 dedicated desks. He now plans to bulldoze
the other two buildings and add a second coworking space. “It hurts my heart
that this cute neighborhood will no longer be part of the Old South Gaylord
community,” Tender Thicket owner Maury Ankrum tells the Chronicle.
The Thicket building was once a pharmacy
and, in fact, they resurrected the pharmacy counter as their checkout counter
and still have the first medicine cabinet in the back. “It was important to me
to keep a bit of its history intact,” she says.
Ankeum is now looking for a new location,
but hasn’t yet found the perfect fit. I am profoundly grateful and humbled for
the years of love and support this neighborhood has given us,” she adds. “We
will miss it dearly. I hope my customers will stop by to say goodbye and snag
some fantastic deals as they check off their holiday list.”
History Lost
Heritage History: The 45-year old Tender Thicket along Old South Gaylord has lost its lease to developers. The Thicket’s home on Gaylord St. is close to 100 years old — it’s historic — but the neighborhood decided not to designate it that way.
While the Tender Thicket building is
believed to be Gaylord’s oldest, the block is dramatically changing as several
developers are buying up the land to add office space in lieu of retail and
restaurants. The Thicket is just one of many stores that have left or are
leaving.
On the west side of the street, Gaylord has
lost Denver’s No. 2 ranked art gallery Arts at Denver, a tailor, two hair
salons and a bike shop. In addition to the Thicket, the east side of the street
has lost or is losing The Tavern, Washington Bark, Sole Sisters (a shoe store),
Little Angels (a pet boutique) and Edward Jones.
The prime corporate takeover of historic
assets taking place on the west side of Gaylord is the corporate purchase of
the former bike shop (Singletrack Factory) near the corner of Gaylord and
Tennessee by LotusGroup Advisors.
Corporate Takeover
Corporate Coup: Two walls are up on LotusGroup Advisors build-out of this two-story corporate office on Gaylord. Among reasons the financial firm chose the district is because of improved parking over its Cherry Creek location.
The Cherry Creek-based financial firm’s
Managing Partner Raphael Martorello paid $1.4 million for the property, has
bulldozed the building and is spending at least another $1.8 million to build
out a 7,200-sq.-ft. two-story corporate office in the heart of the historic
Wash Park neighborhood.
Designed by Neo Era Architecture and being
built by 303 Construction, the firm had projected completion in the second
quarter of this year. In mid-Oct. as this article was written only two of the
four walls of the corporate space are up.
When announcing the project along what he
called a quaint and nice street, Martorello said he chose the site because we
wanted to achieve a “commercial building that feels like a home.” At the time
he declared the new corporate HQ would have “an open floor plan, energy
efficient construction, many spaces for collaboration, and improved parking
over Cherry Creek.”
Gaylord’s History
High Drama: The building that now houses the Charcoal Bistro and a fitness studio opened as the D & R Theater in 1925.
The 1920s were the golden age of movie
theaters, and, in 1925 Gaylord opened its own motion picture palace. The Washington
Park D & R Theater (now home to Charcoal Bistro) at 1028 South Gaylord St.
was built by Carl Adler, who also operated the South Gaylord Home Bakery. On
opening night of the theater in August 1925, two Shetland ponies were given
away as a promotional event. The Washington Park R & D viewed itself as
symbolizing “a new ideal in entertainment,” a community theater which was
up-to-date in every detail.
A business district was flourishing along
South Gaylord by the early 1920s. Chrysler & Son was the first to establish
a business in the area, erecting a brick store at 1075-1083 South Gaylord St.,
in 1915. Historians say that the shopping area “was mostly a product of the
1920s when streetcar #5 terminated there and attracted shoppers on their way to
and from work.” The 1000 block of South Gaylord was zoned Business-Retail when
the city was first zoned in 1925. By 1930 the block featured three clothes
cleaners, two beauty parlors, two barbers, two plumbers, a sheet metal worker
and a shoe repair shop.
As Denver basks in a period of massive
growth combined with the commercial potential of historic districts, the
historic designation of buildings and homes is likely to have little impact on
the ground. Developers from Denver and elsewhere will continue to receive
over-the-counter demolition permits and raze buildings and homes to destroy
history for profit.
The state legislature put two proposals
before the voters this year. The first is Proposition CC which would
permanently end all Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights (“TABOR”) refunds and was
strongly backed by Democratic lawmakers. The other, Proposition DD, would
legalize and tax sports betting by telephone to casinos in Colorado if passed.
It has strong support among Republican legislators. It is clear that people at
the State Capitol don’t believe either proposal has sufficient merit on its own
to garner statewide support so they hope to trick you into voting for them by
misleading language and sleight of hand.
Back in 2005 under Proposition C (which
provided for a pause in TABOR refunds for a five-year period) the legislature
promised to use the money for higher education and got gullible people, like
the then University of Colorado President Hank Brown (a former Republican U.S.
Senator), to support the proposition. When it passed they, in fact, used the
money for higher education, but then they cut even more funds for higher
education from the General Fund resulting in less money overall. As Brown
bluntly stated: “They lied to me.”
Now the legislature plans to pull the same
con hoping the voting public will forget what they did last time. This time the
ballot language says it will be used to “better fund public schools, higher
education, and roads, bridges and transit with an annual independent audit to
show how the retained revenues are spent.” The annual audit will, in fact, show
that the funds will be spent for the stated purposes. The fly in the ointment
is that the legislature will then cut the General Fund for those purposes in
excess of the amount raised and spend the money any way they please. This is
exactly what they with did Proposition C almost a decade and a half ago.
The ballot language for Proposition CC also
starts out declaring: “Without raising taxes . . . .” But it does, in fact,
raise taxes but simply not tax rates. We the taxpayers pay more taxes because
you will never again get a TABOR tax refund.
Brown and former Governor Bill Owens, both
of whom supported Proposition C, have come out against Proposition CC because
they at least remembered how they were lied to 14 years ago by the legislature.
The CC Proposition has drawn opposition
editorially across the political spectrum. The Denver Post argued, inter alia,
that the proposition was incredibly unfair in that it allocates any money for
K-12 education be done on a per pupil basis which rewards the richest school
districts, like those in the Cherry Creek School District, while harming the
poorest schools in inner city Denver and Western Slope rural schools.
The more conservative Colorado Springs
Gazette based their opposition on the fact that TABOR has been a bulwark
against overspending since 1992 and is an important element on why Colorado’s
economy is ranked number 1 in the country for the last several years. If the
additional billion dollars the legislature received this year under TABOR is
not enough, the $1.7 billion it would receive over three years under
Proposition CC will also not be enough and the spending spree will just be
starting.
Regarding, Proposition DD it is beyond a
little strange that Republicans in the State House are so enthusiastic about
opening Colorado to taxed sports betting and the inevitable increase in the
state bureaucracy. If you have been watching the advertisements on television,
they are all about state water projects that will be enhanced and the fact that
the casinos will be paying the 10% tax on winnings. What a joke. The casinos
will pass the cost on to sports bettors along with at least another 10%
vigorish to cover their costs and profits. No one in their right mind would
place a bet with the government approved casinos as the amount to be taken out
of winnings will be enormous and, of course, reported right back to your
friendly IRS, but as PT Barnum said: “There is a sucker born every minute.”
The amount going to so-called “water
projects” is incredibly small and for fiscal year 2020-21 it is as follows:
Estimated
Distribution Fiscal Year
2020-21 Percentage
The ads with the clinically obese cattleman
show the support for Proposition DD by various water related entities expected
to get some of the chicken feed doled out under the proposition, but none of
them paid a penny for the ads. The ads were funded solely by in-state casinos
and out-of-state betting consortiums who are the real beneficiaries of the
proposition.
Proposition DD is opposed on the right by
the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University which wonders why we
see the need for the state government to take and run an ever-increasing number
of human vices. On the left, Coloradans for Climate Justice noted how little is
being raised for so-called water projects and it noted the phrase “water
projects” is so vague as to be virtually meaningless.
So why are the Colorado House Republicans
supporting a proposal which appears to violate many of its purported
principles. The answer is obvious. The Republican Party in Colorado is
virtually bankrupt. The support by Republicans was undoubtably in return for a
promise of funding future Republican endeavors in Colorado by Colorado casinos
and the out-of-state betting consortiums.
We guess just about everyone is for sale at
some price down at the Capitol. There is no reason we should support such
egregious conduct by voting for either Proposition CC or Proposition DD.
The Denver City Council’s agent of change and de facto
leader Candi CdeBaca is planning to have the City Council pass a bill to change
the City Charter to allow Denver voters to elect the city’s Sheriff as is the
case almost everywhere else in Colorado. Given the disaster the Sheriff’s
Department has become, the voters could not do worse than Hancock’s picks over
the last nine years. Even the union representing the Sheriff deputies believes
that such a reform is long past due.
It is difficult to catalog all of the scandals that have
befallen the office over the last few years, starting with the death of
mentally ill Michael Lee Marshall while in custody. The lawsuits alone have
cost the taxpayers a staggering amount of money, including the most recent $1.55 million
settlement paid to 15 female Sheriff deputies for “severe and unwelcome sexual
harassment by male inmates . . . fostered by the failure of the Sheriff’s Department
to take reasonable steps to prevent it.” The next big hit to the taxpayers will
be from the female inmate forced to give birth to a child alone in a Denver
jail cell.
Patrick Firman
Denver Sheriff Patrick Firman resigned effective October 14
after years of mistrust from deputies and community activists, who said that
was the price of filling the position with a man who was never the right person
for the job. “Nice guy, just wasn’t suited to be Sheriff,” said Lisa Calderón,
chief of staff for Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca.
If he were so ill suited for the job, why in the world was
he appointed by Mayor Hancock in 2015 after a long search process? Because it
was a workie, workie like everything else the Mayor does. If you think anything
is going to change as long as the Mayor gets to appoint the Sheriff, you would
be mistaken. For the interim Sheriff, Hancock has appointed a woman, Fran
Gomez, who is even more unqualified than Firman. She was briefly with the
Sheriff’s Department in the 1980s and then after years doing police work in
Aurora and Commerce City she retired. In August of last year she apparently
unretired and got the “no work” job in the Sheriff’s Department as the
“Director of Professional Standards.”
What caused the sudden hiring and incredible rise through
the ranks to the top in a little over a year? According to the Deputy Sheriff’s
union it is due to the fact she is the wife of one of Hancock’s security
detail. Hancock apparently counted on that fact being obscured by the fact she
is the “first” female Denver Sheriff of any sort and has a Hispanic last name.
Almost everyone expects that under Ms. Gomez things will go from bad to even
worse at the jail. This will be followed by the appointment of another gross
incompetent as the permanent Denver Sheriff.
Denver’s citizens really do not have to put up with this
pathetic hiring carousel for the Sheriff position. We should choose the best
candidate for Sheriff ourselves. Voters are not perfect of course, as evidenced
by the fact we have elected Michael Hancock three times. But candidates for the
office will have to at least try to convince us why they would be well-suited
for the job. We can’t do a whole lot worse than choosing as interim Sheriff a
person whose only qualification is that she is the wife of a man on the Mayor’s
security detail.
Fran Gomez
The positions directly below the Sheriff are also presently
political patronage jobs chosen by the Mayor for all of the wrong reasons. An
elected Sheriff could at least pick individuals he/she believes are best suited
to help do what is a very hard job, rather than simply to people whom a Mayor
owes a favor.
Having an elected Sheriff is only the beginning of the
process to provide some checks and balances in the City Charter over present
and future corrupt and out-of-control Mayors.
Lord Acton famously stated: “Power tends to corrupt, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
It is time in Denver for a little less absolute power and a
lot less public corruption.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used
when we created them.”
— Albert Einstein
The importance of recycling seems, to some degree, to have
taken a back seat to the divisive nature of the global warming argument. Yet,
regardless of how you choose to process scientific evidence about carbon
emissions and the rising temperature of the planet, the fact remains that
civilization is producing massive amounts of trash. Further, some (not all) of
the elements which end up in the landfill do so unnecessarily, and can better
serve the greater economic good by being redirected back into the consumer
commodities market.
Garbage Piles: Piles of garbage create mounting concerns.
Understand The Economics
Recycling is a bipartisan-friendly notion. From a purely
fiscal standpoint, there are significant, trackable levels of energy savings
that occur with specific types of materials such as aluminum and paper. The
Reynolds Metal Company reports that making aluminum cans from their recycled
counterparts takes 95 percent less energy than manufacturing them from raw
aluminum bauxite. Meanwhile, the American Forest and Paper Association reports
that recycling one ton of paper saves 7,000 gallons of water and enough energy
to power the everyday household for six months.
Consider The Environmental Angle
From an anti-pollution approach, according to denvergov.org,
the average family can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 340 pounds of carbon
equivalent per year by simply recycling all of its mixed plastic waste. Also,
the Glass Packaging Institute offers further eco-friendly evidence by reporting
that glass recycling can reduce water pollution by 20% and air pollution by
50%. These stats are backed by the National Recycling Coalition, which reports
that eight to 10 major types of water and air pollutants can be reduced through
recycling. Plus, less garbage means less land that must be allocated for
landfills.
Choose Your Facts And Act
The key to reducing the financial and environmental burden
of unnecessary waste lies in the average citizen adopting a mindset of cyclic
thinking in exchange for cause-and-effect behavior. This means integrating
recycling into your long-term habits and routines rather than practicing it as
an afterthought once the trash has already been produced. Whether you are
driven by economic practicality or eco-friendly concern, here are seven ways
you can do your part to expand the effort to reduce waste that is unnecessarily
dumped into the ground.
Buy Recycled
Purchasing products that are made from or packaged in
recycled materials helps increase the demand within this segment of the
consumer product market. These can be paper goods, building materials made from
recycled plastic and steel, refilled printer cartridges, activewear, smartphone
covers and tote bags — just to name a few.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags)
Speaking of bags, you can greatly reduce paper and plastic
waste by supplying your own means of getting your groceries home. The Recycling
pages on denvergov.org repeatedly state that plastic bags cannot be recycled
because they jam up the materials sorting machinery. That’s right — all plastic
bags, even though you can reuse them once or twice around the house —
eventually end up in the landfill. If everyone stopped relying on them, demand
for landfill space could be systematically reduced.
Decontaminate Containers
Food containers that are placed in the recycle bin without
first being rinsed out introduce contaminants into the process as the organic
material begins to decompose. You can reduce the amount of items which end up
in the landfill because they are full of food residue by giving items such as
yogurt cartons, jelly jars, tin cans and juice bottles a sufficient rinse before
recycling. This scenario includes the ever-present and confounding pizza box.
While the box bottom, if covered in grease and residue, cannot be recycled — it
can be composted by cutting it into small pieces and placing it in your
backyard facility. Meanwhile, the box lid, as long as it is grease-free, can
always be recycled.
Purchase Less Packaging
Your shopping protocol can involve a “buy less packaging”
approach by making a plan ahead of time to curtail old habits in the produce
section. Specifically, by choosing to not place fruits and vegetables which you
plan to wash anyway into plastic bags as you pick them off the shelf. You can
also choose products in compostable packaging (as indicated on the label) and
you can buy items you consume regularly in bulk.
Donate Don’t Discard
Unwanted goods such as furniture, household items, cooking
utensils and clothing do not have to be thrown away — especially if they are
still functional or can be easily repaired. By taking them to your local thrift
store, they can be reappropriated by someone who needs them instead of winding
up in the landfill while still having value.
Maximize Organic Matter
According to the EPA, 30% of everything people throw away is
comprised of food and yard waste. Grasscycling and composting are excellent
ways of reducing the amount of plastic bags and fuel needed to haul away grass
clippings and uneaten scraps. In turn, you are helping to save landfill space
by placing organic matter in your own backyard — which enriches the soil, reduces
the need for synthetic fertilizers and lowers your carbon footprint by
decreasing methane emission from the landfill.
Go Out Of Your Way
Aluminum Cans: Properly recycled aluminum can be turned back into usable cans for a fraction of the costs of processing raw aluminum bauxite.
If you’re already a proactive Denver recycler, you may have
more items than can fit in your purple recycle bin. If this is the case, you
can access the Cherry Creek Recycling Drop-off facility for overflow items that
do not belong in the landfill as well as compostable materials such as food
scraps and yard clippings. This is a service for Denver residents only, not for
commercial entities.
In the realm of environmental issues, there are some areas
where opinions are not unanimous. When it comes to recycling, however, any way
you look at it (especially not facing downward into the landfill) makes
practical, economic, eco-friendly sense.
Residents in the Huntington Estates neighborhood are crying
foul that two doctors are allowed to allow their property to continue to be in
disrepair and neither the neighborhood covenants nor Arapahoe County can stop
them.
No Response: Members of the HOA leadership team have tried to contact the Brauns on numerous occasions about the property but they have not received a response.
“All of us are tired of looking at the dilapidated and
unoccupied house,” Dick Pond, the treasurer of the neighborhood Home Owners
Association, told the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle in an email. “The HOA and
a few neighbors have tried to contact the Brauns about it, but we keep getting
the same answer, that they’ll be selling it soon.”
The owners, Tom and Carol Braun, left their house on East
Evans Way 15 years ago after purchasing a bigger home on the other side of the
neighborhood. Now, their old house sits on a plot of dead grass and overgrown
shrubs. Bits of glass from the windows litter the yard.
Pond and other members of the HOA leadership team have tried
to contact the Brauns on numerous occasions about the property. They’ve also
sent letters to their new residence warning the Brauns that if they hold on to
the property too long they might miss out on the wave of rising home values in
the area.
“Values in the city and our local area are on the rise and
several families in the neighborhood are trying to sell or will be soon,” one
letter dated April 28, 2013 reads. “This could again be a lovely home, if only
it were occupied and maintained. However, many solar panels are missing or
broken, gutters are falling off or missing, and the front yard is dirt and
weeds.”
The Brauns did not respond to repeated requests for comment
for this story.
Power Of Association
Broken Windows: Bits of glass from the broken windows litter the yard of the Brauns’ ome on East Evans Way. The Brauns abandoned their home 15 years ago.
State laws generally give HOAs vast powers to control the
aesthetics of their neighborhood. Each county adopts their own laws regarding
the powers of these associations as well.
However, those laws are only enforceable if the HOA is
registered with the state. HOAs that make more than $5,000 per year are
required to register with both the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) and
the Director of Real Estate (DRE). Those making less than $5,000 annually only
register with the DRE and are not held to the same standards of reporting.
Huntington Estates’ HOA is informal, as resident Paul Hanley
describes it. While this structure may benefit homeowners in that there are no
monthly HOA dues to pay, it also makes it difficult to take decisive action
against the Brauns.
“The covenant governing the neighborhood was written back in
the 1960s, and it’s weak compared to today’s standards,” Hanley said. “But,
this is what happens when you don’t live in a municipality. You may pay less in
taxes, but you get less government in return.”
Residents have contacted Arapahoe County about the Brauns’
house many times, but the County’s answer is never simple. Since Huntington
Estates is located in unincorporated Arapahoe County, local ordinances don’t
carry much weight. Instead, the county relies on the principles of fairness to
adjudicate disputes among neighbors.
“They’ve basically told us that because the farmers and
ranchers nearby can allow barns and other structures on their property to
dilapidate, then so can homeowners in Huntington Estates,” Hanley said.
Hanley also admitted that some residents had discussed
attempting to strengthen Huntington Estate’s covenants, but doing so requires a
unanimous vote among homeowners.
“It would really just be more trouble than it’s worth,”
Hanley said.
Living Trust
Abandoned Home: This home in the Huntington Estates neighborhood has neighbors upset as two doctors abandoned their property in 2004 and have allowed it to be in complete disrepair. Neighbors are concerned for their property values as some gear up to sell their property.
According to Arapahoe County property tax records, the Brauns’
house is currently owned by a living trust in Carol’s name. Typically, wealthy
homeowners put property into living trusts if they plan on passing it on after
death.
Some residents worry that there may be a financial incentive
for the Brauns to let their property dilapidate, and that this incentive could
negatively affect their home values.
“Many neighbors have expressed concern about your disregard
for the condition of the abandoned house and about the market values of their
own properties as a result,” the HOA letter reads. “In addition, the community
is concerned about any potential health or environmental impact as a result of
the continued declining condition and lack of care for the property.”
Colorado is one of 38 states that doesn’t charge an estate
tax. Even so homeowners can still be charged a federal estate tax after their
death. Under prime circumstances, married couples can protect up to $22.28
million under the federal exemption guidelines. A single homeowner can protect
an estate valuing up to $11.18 million, according to the IRS.
By allowing their home to dilapidate, the Brauns could avoid
paying estate taxes all together. They currently own two homes, one of which
was purchased for just under $600,000 while the median home value of the
neighborhood is close to a half-million. Factor in a few savvy investments and
they could be leaving behind a nice nest egg with no tax burden.
However, the majority of the neighbors just want the problem
to go away. They’re tired of seeing the home slowly crumble while homes that
are near it have had a tough time staying full.
“This is really a case of buyer beware,” Hanley said. “We’re
basically subject to the goodwill of our neighbors on this one.”
