AURORA | Amid local and national furor over three ramshackle Aurora apartments, city lawmakers are in-line to give final approval Monday to a measure that would allow the city to step in and manage derelict buildings.
“We want people to come into compliance,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock, the bill’s sponsor said during a hearing on the bill in May. “We want to make sure that our neighbors, the people who live in these communities, the folks who surround these communities, are safe and secure.”
The proposal, allowing the city to intervene in the management of residential and commercial properties that create public safety hazards, comes amid Aurora doing just that at three northwest Aurora apartment complexes. Those apartments have been the center of a national controversy over allegations of immigrant gangs overrunning the buildings, a narrative created by building owners and some city officials. Aurora police and city staff have repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that the complexes have been the scene of a multitude of criminal acts, including some committed by immigrants, and possibly immigrant gangs…