DENVER — For nearly three years, large chunks of broken concrete have sat on the tree lawn next to a parking lot at 21st Street and Glenarm Place, right next to the historic St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Denver’s Clements Historic District.
“It’s time to re-beautify the city,” said Ross Jacobsmeyer, a member of the church’s board of directors. “This debris has been here for the better part of three years now. It’s unsightly, it’s a health risk, and it needs to go away.”
Jacobsmeyer said he has spent more than a year contacting city officials and even reached out to the property managers he suspects left the concrete. He said he has received little response. So, he decided to contact Denver7, and we began looking into this for him.
Neighbors agree that the debris is dragging down the area’s efforts to revitalize.
“This is something that is an eyesore within the neighborhood, and we’d like to see it cleaned up,” said Richard White, who lives a block away. “If the city is really wishing to crack down on bad properties, this would be one of them.”
White said removing the debris would help the district’s appearance and align with Denver’s broader push to clean up public spaces.
We did some research and got in contact with Kevin Preblud, president of EXDO Group Companies, who owns the property. Preblud told us neighbors wanted the rocks placed there to deter homeless encampments.
"As I recall it, there was some neighborhood outreach," Preblud said. "And they asked us, and some of the other neighbors, where the camps were prevalent, what we could do — could we help them with a solution."
Residents like White feel like the rocks have served their purpose and now should be removed.
"We've had parts of Glenarm which have been removed of all the debris, and no encampment has come back," White said.
Preblud told us he is willing to work with neighbors — just as he did several years ago — to find a more aesthetic solution for this historic corridor.
“Perfect scenario would be for the property owner to come in with front loaders and equipment and remove all that debris, reseed it with grass,” Jacobsmeyer said.
