JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Enough drivers pass C-470 and Morrison Road in Jefferson County to fill Empower Field every day.
And as those 75,000 drivers go by, they can see a boarded up home on the west side of C-470.
Jennifer emailed Next with Kyle Clark wanting to know about the home:
There is an abandoned house that you can see on the west side of C470, all boarded up. Zillow is showing it sold in 8/2020 for $585,000.00 and county records show that Jefferson County bought it. I can't seem to find out why and what they are planning on doing with it. Seems like a lot of taxpayer money for a very old and tiny home that now sits there allowing the elements to abuse it day in and day out," she wrote.
"In the morning and afternoon commutes, it slows down and maybe people are looking from side-to-side and notice that the building is there," said Jefferson County Open Space Community Connections Director Matt Robbins.
The county did buy the home and the 6.3 acres it sits on in August 2020. The home is surrounded on three sides by Mount Glennon Park Open Space.
"This was a land acquisition that had a small house on it," said Robbins. "What we did is we purchased this property with the intent of now having continuous land that we can ultimately develop for the people of the county and those that want to come and visit, and we'll build some trails," said Robbins.
Even though the home is boarded up, Robbins challenges people to reconsider their traditional thoughts of "abandoned."
"When people see that some of the windows are boarded up, it’s to keep the critters out," said Robbins. "We have rangers and staff that visit it regularly to make sure that it’s actually in good standing. This is not an abandoned, by any means, property."
The idea of the purchase was to create an open space with new trail access and, perhaps, a kiosk or welcome center.
"Because this house has some infrastructure, including a roadway and utilities at the location, it could make for an ideal trailhead at one point," said Robbins. "Certainly restrooms, if possible flushing restrooms."
Because of where the home sits, it is likely to be preserved for a while, just like the land around it.
"We’re doing an evaluation of all of the land. That includes some of the paleontology that we know is there. We know there are dinosaur tracks and other things along that hogback. We need to do an evaluation of that," said Robbins.
As for the money used to buy the property, it came from the 0.5% sales tax that funds Jefferson County Open Space.
"It is a dedicated sales tax that was established in 1972," said Robbins. "I think we’re very fortunate here, living in the Denver metro area, you look out to the west and we see these mountains, and we don’t see structures built on them. And that’s because we’ve utilized, for the past 50 years, this open space tax."
Before the county creates a new space with this property, it is focused on maintaining the existing open space.
"Repairing those kiosks and restrooms and trailheads that are already out there that need some support," said Robbins. "I don’t have a timeline for when we’re going to get this done, but it is on our radar and it is a priority."
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