When a community focuses interest on building new business, driving economic support and increasing traffic to local businesses, the result is economical success for the entire community, provided the new business development is based on FREE Enterprise. There is nothing so disturbing as the act of a desperate community leader attempting to “pull one over” on the constituents within the community.

In prior blog posts, you’ll find photos of Lamar Businesses stated to be inside the Blighted Area, described as the Urban Redevelopment District. Many of those businesses are joined “at the wall” with neighboring businesses, and the buildings have been in existence for long enough to be considered as having historic value… So how are these buildings, these businesses, part of a BLIGHTED area?

The City Administrator of Lamar and the City Council of Lamar invited Urban Renewal Developers to come in and do a study of the area determined by their maps in the Urban redevelopment Plan. Their summation of the business district in question is that the area is Blighted. This determination gives the City Council and City Administrator specific rights to determine whether or not the property is worth saving, or if it should be taken away from the owner, should the owner not comply with the demands of the “Authority”.

Read below, a segment removed from the Urban Redevelopment Plan to see if your property complies:

Before an urban renewal plan can be adopted by the City, the area must be
determined to be a “blighted area” as defined in Section 31-25-103(2) of the Act,
which provides that, in its present condition and use, the presence of at least four
of the following factors in the area, substantially impairs or arrests the sound
growth of the municipality, retards the provision of housing accommodations, or
constitutes an economic or social liability, and is a menace to the public health,
safety, morals, or welfare:
(a) Slum, deteriorated, or deteriorating structures;
(b) Predominance of defective or inadequate street layout;
(c) Faulty lot layout in relation to size, adequacy, accessibility, or usefulness;
(d) Unsanitary or unsafe conditions;
(e) Deterioration of site or other improvements;
(f) Unusual topography or inadequate public improvements or utilities;
(g) Defective or unusual conditions of title rendering the title nonmarketable;
(h) The existence of conditions that endanger life or property by fire or other causes;
(i) Buildings that are unsafe or unhealthy for persons to live or work in because of
building code violations, dilapidation, deterioration, defective design, physical
construction, or faulty or inadequate facilities;
(j) Environmental contamination of buildings or property;
(k.5) The existence of health, safety, or welfare factors requiring high levels of
municipal services or substantial physical underutilization or vacancy of sites,
buildings, or other improvements; or
(l) If there is no objection by the property owner or owners and the tenant or tenants
of such owner or owners, if any, to the inclusion of such property in an urban
renewal area, “blighted area” also means an area that, in its present conditions
and use and, by reason of the presences of any one of the factors specified in
paragraphs (a) to (k.5) of Section 31-25-103(2), substantially impairs or arrests
the sound growth of the municipality, retards the provision of housing
accommodations, or constitutes an economic or social liability, and is a menace to
the public health, safety, morals, or welfare.
The Act also provides that, if private property is to be acquired by the Authority
by eminent domain, at least five of the factors specified in Section 31-25-103(2)(a)
to (2)(l) must be present.

Notice the last segment of this excerpt from the Urban Redevelopment Plan:

The Act also provides that, if private property is to be acquired by the Authority by eminent domain, at least five of the factors specified in Section 31-25-103(2)(a)
to (2)(l) must be present.

IF you’re a resident in Lamar, Colorado, or a business owner in Lamar, Colorado and that doesn’t give you a Queasy Tummy, nothing will!