YOUNGSTOWN County and city officials mull foreclosure options

If foreclosure costs come down, the city could collect enough land to entice developers.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There are 10,000 to 15,000 properties in the city where taxes are owed.
String a bunch together and put them under government control and you have a developer's paradise.
First, says Mahoning County Treasurer John Reardon, government must find a cheaper way to foreclose on those delinquent properties to make such a dream a reality.
Reardon and a couple of his staffers met Wednesday with city officials and council members to talk about how to do that.
The county spends an average of $800 to $1,000 in legal work foreclosing on a property. That doesn't include administrative costs.
Combined with county staffing problems, the result is at least 1,500 backlogged city requests to bring vacant property into its land bank.
Possibilities examined: Reardon is looking at how other counties handle foreclosures.
Some cut out much of the legal work, which leaves potential liability for the new owners but drops costs to about $300 a parcel. Others do hundreds of foreclosures at once to save money. The county averages between 50 and 100 foreclosures a year.
Foreclosure costs have to come down because of the huge number of delinquent parcels, which total 20,000 across the county, Reardon said.
"A big-time solution is required," he said.
He and city officials agreed to talk more next month about lowering the costs. If costs come down, the city could collect enough land to entice housing and retail business developers, Reardon said.
"There is a tremendous economic development opportunity here," he said. "This is something that necessarily has to happen. We're talking about the future of this city, this town, this region."
City officials agree.
Lost opportunities: The city misses out on economic development projects because it doesn't have big chunks of land to offer, said Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd.
For example, the Covington Heights Neighborhood Development Corp. is planning a range of housing and retail shops on the lower North Side. The group has been slowed, however, trying to get the land to do that.
If there were more foreclosures the city could simply turn over the land, saving the group time and money, Reardon said.
The city could mimic Dayton and its move to foreclose on a bunch of parcels near downtown. Today a Hilton hotel stands there and businesses surround it.
The city could pick a major corridor such as Market Street, South Avenue or Oak Street and the county could foreclose on all the delinquent properties. The city would then own the land and could improve it or offer it to developers, Reardon said.