SIDE STREETS: HOAs, blight, death made 2011 an interesting year

The first column of the new year is a good time to reflect and anticipate!

And there’s plenty to consider as 2012 gets underway, so let’s get started.

The last 12 months produced plenty of neighborhood controversies, a few ongoing disputes and even a few surprises.

We saw a rogue hiker ticketed for going off trail. Neighborhood block parties were debated by the City Council. Streetlights were turned back on. A proposed halfway house for drug abusers sparked outrage in Ivywild, again. Neighborhoods learned a new word: fracking. And social media emerged as the neighborhood front porch of the digital age.

The most frequent complaint I hear, year after year, involves homeowners association boards, covenants and allegations of abuse and 2011 was no different.

The HOA headline for the year was the opening of a state HOA Information Office and Resource Center to give folks  a place to report problems and learn their rights. The HOA center kept track of complaints and is scheduled to report its findings to the 2012 Colorado General Assembly.

As a result of that report, I expect HOAs to be the topic of several bills lawmakers will consider in 2012 including proposals to license HOA property managers.

I also expect a renewed effort to create an HOA ombudsman with powers to regulate the state’s HOAs. In either case, there could be HOA fireworks in Denver, so we’ll all stay tuned.

Among the high-profile HOA enforcement actions in 2011 was a case brought by the Woodmoor Improvement Association against Cynthia Van Wormer over her home-based bird-breeding business.

It seemed like an easy case to resolve: animal breeding, rescue shelters and retail sales of exotic animals are illegal in their area of the county and banned by Woodmoor covenants.

In one of the biggest surprises of the year, the El Paso County Commission ignored state law and its own codes and adopted a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Smell” policy toward Van Wormer’s Rocky Mountain Bird Farm & Pet Supply business.

Then the case took a shocking twist. On April 14, Cynthia Van Wormer died. But that didn’t end the business at her home or the lawsuit the WIA filed against her to enforce its covenants.

Another sad story came a month later, on May 11, with the death of 45-year-old Josie Trujillo. Just a few weeks earlier, I had reported on the dramatic progress Trujillo had made getting her house in Cragmor up to code.

Far less progress was made on the house I’ve dubbed Exhibit A for blight in Colorado Springs.

Since 1973, the Joseph O’Brien house at 715 N. 24th St., has rotted. It is the longest condemned house in the city. And it remain uninhabitable even though it inspired passage of a city blight ordinance in 2006.

O’Brien’s son, Glen, has replaced the windows and wiring and slapped some paint on it. But it remains a huge eyesore.

Neighbors complain they can’t sell their homes and their property values are suffering.

And city officials vow to crack down on O’Brien. As the house approaches its 40th anniversary of condemnation, I can’t wait to see what happens. Can you?

Fire up another bag of popcorn!

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