Land bank, Campbell celebrate successful partnership

CAMPBELL

The Mahoning County Land Bank and the city of Campbell met jointly Tuesday to report the successes of the partnership’s blight reduction efforts and to share their goals with residents.

Since the partnership began three years ago, the land bank has invested $1.2 million into blight reduction projects in the city.

The land bank is on track to acquire 100 abandoned properties and demolish at least 50 by 2019. Since the beginning of February, the land bank has demolished 17 abandoned homes in Campbell.

Debora Flora, executive director of the Mahoning County Land Bank and Dan Yemma, the Mahoning County treasurer and chairman of the Land Bank, were joined by Campbell Mayor Nick Phillips, the city council and the city’s property specialist Maureen O’Neil to make the announcement to about a dozen residents.

Flora said that most of the group’s recent work in Campbell has been focused on the residential areas surrounding Campbell’s business districts.

“One of Campbell’s priorities is attracting new businesses. The business district is linked to the residential districts, so improving one is necessary in order to improve the other,” Flora said.

The land bank has worked alongside O’Neil to identify houses in need of rehabilitation or demolition.

“We’ve developed a great organic partnership with the city of Campbell,” Flora said.