Las Cruces hones approach to nuisance properties

The City of Las Cruces on Monday discussed steps it is taking to confront abandoned buildings across the city, including those in designated Metropolitan Redevelopment Areas and historic districts.

Community Development Director Chris Faivre told the City Council at a work session that the city is putting a higher priority on addressing problematic structures rather than owners, noting that properties in the worst physical condition are more likely to have no legal owners of record.

The city has adopted the International Property Maintenance Code, working its guidelines for addressing abandoned, unsanitary or deteriorating structures into city procedures, allowing city code officers to assess properties and enforce property standards.

New initiatives aim to enhance the city’s Nuisance Abatement Team, or NAT, to address unused properties and blight as the city moves forward with redeveloping swaths of the city and addresses shortages in affordable housing.

Faivre demonstrated an interactive map of nuisance or “NAT properties,” accessible on the city’s website, along with a survey form allowing residents to suggest properties that might be added to the list for the team’s review.

As of Monday, Faivre said there were 165 properties on the map. Under a three-tier rating system for severity, 51 properties were graded as highest priority, for vacant structures with no known owner and visible structural issues. In the middle tier, for vacant or deteriorating properties with no known owner, 50 properties were listed. The remaining 64 were in the least severe category for properties with owners in contact with the city, no major structural issues and improving compliance with property codes.

Faivre said the city was also contemplating options to assist owners who desire to make improvements to properties or safely demolish them, but lack the capital to do so, such as in the Metropolitan Redevelopment Areas. For example, along the El Paseo corridor connecting downtown Las Cruces to New Mexico State University and neighborhoods and commercial zones adjacent to campus, there is a mix of active businesses and empty commercial properties. Some are in the process of being renovated, while others have sat empty for years.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit easier, and maybe the resources are a little more available to those (commercial) owners than it is some of the vacant residential properties (where) maybe the owner passed away 15 years ago and there isn’t anybody to assume ownership,” Faivre said.

Where an owner is unknown, Faivre said the team makes good-faith efforts to research title through internet resources and public records, and might look into coordinating with the city’s historic preservation committee and neighborhood historical associations as well.

Faivre said city staff may bring a new ordinance dealing with tracking the progress of NAT properties later in the fiscal year, or mid-2026. Although the program is currently budgeted at about $100,000, Faivre anticipated a need for funds for demolitions in coming years, which he hoped would taper off as earlier interventions increased and properties moved into compliance. Demolitions alone reportedly range from approximately $25,000 to $60,000 in a recent case involving a historic property in Las Cruces’ Mesquite district.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of that over the next couple of years because we are going to have to go in and abate a lot of these properties,” he said.

City Councilor Johana Bencomo noted during the discussion that many of the properties of concern are in lower-income areas. She then addressed balancing enforcement with social equity.

“The last thing I want to do is create some sort of poverty tax,” Bencomo said. “I don’t want to be ‘big bad government’ coming in to take people’s property. I also think that when you become a property owner, you are also signing on to a responsibility about being a good, responsible neighbor. So when people abandon that responsibility, I think local government should step in and figure out how to remedy that.”