The city of Colorado Springs demolished the shell of a house on the west side this week that anti-tax advocate Douglas Bruce was fighting to reclaim. He expects to keep fighting for the property post demolition. 

For some neighbors the demolition of the house on Kiowa Street in Old Colorado City was a long-awaited win. They gathered to cheer and applaud the work, said Councilman Tom Strand, who lives in the area. 

“It’s taken a long, long time to finally bring down to its knees,” he said. 

The four-plex, built in 1899, burned in 1992 and has long been a blight and potential fire hazard, neighbors said.  

It didn’t have a roof or floors and didn’t look salvageable, said Christianna Miller, who bought the home next door in January. The demolition could give new life to the property, several neighbors said. 

“If they were to rebuild something nice there, I wouldn’t be sad about it. I also wouldn’t be mad if it’s just a green little plot of land for a while,” Miller said, noting she is tempted to spread some wildflower seeds on the property. 

The house was condemned in 2007 and Bruce has long fought the city’s attempts to take it down, said Councilman Richard Skorman. 

“Mr. Bruce is a specialist at appealing and dealing with the court system,” he said. Bruce is probably most well known for authoring the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. He is also a former state representative, El Paso County commissioner and convicted felon who served prison time for tax evasion among other crimes.  

The appeal process was fully exhausted before the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department permitted the demolition, said Roger Lovell, who heads the department. 

The city spent about $50,000 on the demolition and expects to file a lien on the property to recoup the costs, spokeswoman Kim Melchor said. 

Bruce sold the house in 2016 for about about $160,000 but has been fighting to get it back after the owner, Renovation Management Group 106, could no longer pay for the property. The renovation company took off the roof and siding and then stopped work on the house, he said. 

While the foreclosure process has been complex and lengthy and Bruce may have to start over, he expects to ultimately reclaim the lot , he said. 

“All they’ve done is basically create a clean buildable lot for me once I complete the foreclosure,” he said. 

Even though he was not the owner of the lot, he holds a mortgage on the property and he had been trying to fix the dangerous aspects of the house. He worked with contractors and structural engineers to prepare plans and reports to submit to the regional building department to enclose the building and put a roof on it, he said. 

“They have not allowed me to ever solve the problem,” he said. 

Lovell said Bruce’s plans were denied because they were incomplete and would not have rectified all the problems with the building, he said.