The City of Las Cruces approved a new effort to tackle vacant properties in the city.
The council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that creates a registry for vacant properties and charges the owners yearly fees for being on the registry. The ordinance aims to only penalize properties that have been vacant for over two years and do not have an exemption like being up for sale at a fair price and is marketed as being for sale.
The fee for having a property on the vacant list starts at $500 and moves to $2000 per year on the third year for residential and $2000 moving to $8000 per year for commercial properties. The ordinance also sets up an appeal process for owners…