Mahoning County Land Bank reaches agreement with prosecutor’s office
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Land Bank has approved an agreement under which the county prosecutor’s office will process the foreclosures necessary to return tax-delinquent land to productive use.
Under the procedure the land bank approved Tuesday, interest and penalties on delinquent taxes collected by the county treasurer’s office will go toward the prosecutor’s expenses for staff time used in the foreclosure process.
The land bank was created by the county commissioners last spring.
At present, there are about 100 land parcels, most of them in Youngstown, which are ready for foreclosure, said Daniel R. Yemma, county treasurer and land bank chairman.
“There doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency given the scale of the problem we’re facing,” complained Phil Kidd, a community organizer with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative.
“Youngstown has nearly 20 times the national average of vacant and abandoned property,” in metropolitan areas, said Kidd, who attended Tuesday’s land-bank board of directors meeting. “This problem continues to compound almost daily.”
“The land bank has not transferred a property yet,” to reuse, Yemma acknowledged. “As Lien Forward Ohio [a regional council of governments], we transferred over 900 properties in the last four or five years,” he noted.
“There are steps that need to be taken, and we have been in the process of taking those steps” in the transition to landbanking, including the agreement with the prosecutor’s office, he said.
“The land bank itself has no employees. Lien Forward employees are going to transition and begin performing some of those duties,” for the land bank, Yemma explained.
“This is very similar to a startup business. It takes time, and it has to be done legally,” Yemma said, explaining the delay in mobilizing the land bank. “We’re just working at it very diligently to make sure that it’s set up correctly and legally, so that we have a better chance of success once we are operational,” he added.
Anyone wishing to acquire the 100 parcels ready for foreclosure will be able to do so during 2012, Yemma said.
For most homeowners wishing to acquire an adjacent vacant 50-by- 150-foot city lot, perhaps for use as an urban garden, the acquisition cost will be between $100 and $200, he said.
The land bank has more than 300 people on its waiting list to acquire land, he said.
Under the state’s new land-bank law, the land transfer process will take three to six months, compared with the previous average of two years, he said.
“We have been meeting regularly. We have been working on this. It’s been in the forefront and continues to be,” Yemma said of the land bank’s board of directors. “This is a very important endeavor, and we’re committed to seeing it through,” he concluded.