County Sets Up Land Bank To Deal With Vacant Homes

Franklin County will establish a new land bank that will allow the county to quickly take control of foreclosed vacant and abandoned properties.

The land bank will be funded with a portion of the penalties and late fees collected by the county on delinquent tax bills. Land bank funds will then be used to either rehabilitate or demolish the homes.

Franklin County Treasurer Ed Leonard said the land bank will have new powers and resources that will allow the county to go after vacant properties without a sheriff's sale. He estimates the land bank will receive about $3.5 million a year in funding.

Prairie Township trustee Steve Kennedy has been trying to deal with an abandoned property on Maple Drive for several years.

The home was severely damaged in a fire, and the owner simply walked away from it. But the home is still technically considered "structurally sound," and Kennedy says under Ohio law trustees can't touch it. Kennedy says the new county land bank will give trustees another avenue to pursue demolition of the home.

Standing in front of a dilapidated and abandoned home on Dunbar Drive, Clinton Township trustee Paula Armentrout said the new land bank should provide some relief.

"When you have blight like this in your neighborhood you just definitely know that it's affecting your property value," Armentrout said. "It affects your safety. It affects so many things in your community. So, even though we're not the swankiest neighborhood in town, we are a proud neighborhood and we would like to see this kind of stuff gone."

Through the new land bank initiative, the county can work with local and state partners, as well as private and nonprofit agencies, to rehab or demolish the buildings and return the properties to productive use.

"A single vacant and abandoned property can draw down the values for homes on an entire street, and in many sections of our county – where we have dense, mixed-use neighborhood – a few vacant properties impact hundreds of others," said Franklin County Commissioner Paul Brooks. "The county land bank gives us yet another tool to target this blight and stop these properties from being a drain on our taxpayers and our communities."

At their Feb. 21 meeting, Franklin County commissioners are expected to approve a partnership with the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation (COCIC) to operate as the County Land Bank Corporation.

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