‘One down, one up’: New entity proposed to reuse vacant home sites

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The Brown County Redevelopment Commission (RDC) is taking public comments for the next four weeks about its plans for a new entity, the Brown County Community Investment Corporation, also known as the Brown County Landbank.

Land banks are not financial institutions. They are 501(c)3 tax-exempt entities that can acquire, lease, hold and/or sell properties so that they can be redeveloped. In Brown County, the intent is to use properties in the land bank as places to put housing.

This is a concept that the RDC has been talking about for more than two years. RDC member Justin Schwenk briefed the county council and county commissioners in July 2019 and did a presentation at the Brown County Playhouse in August 2019. Schwenk is now the president of the RDC.

Since this past winter, RDC members and other volunteers have been gathering data on land use in Brown County through a survey tool called Landgrid. After canvassing most of Van Buren and Washington townships so far, they reported identifying around 60 land parcels where a vacant home was found and a new home could go instead.

RDC members have pointed out in past meetings that putting a new home or two where an old one used to be would have less impact on the surrounding neighbors than building an entirely new neighborhood on vacant land would.

To continue to pay for services its residents need and want, the county needs people living here. Brown County is projected to lose 9 percent of its population by 2050 if conditions stay as they were when that projection was made in 2017.

To go into the land bank, a property would have to go into the county tax sale and not find a buyer. From those that are not “redeemed” (reclaimed by the owner by paying the back taxes owed), the land bank could choose some to acquire, get the county to wipe out the tax debt, and sell or lease those properties to an individual or to a builder/developer who agrees to put a new home on them. The sale price for the land to a new owner could range from $1 to fair market value.

Under the language proposed for the Brown County Landbank charter, “no property shall be acquired by the corporation if said property is currently occupied or is the full-time primary residence of the property owner.”

“This is not a way of snatching our own people’s land,” Schwenk said at a July 15 discussion about housing with the READI grant planning group.

The RDC will not support acquiring homes that people are currently living in. Rather, “this is a way to reutilize land that is owned by someone in New Hampshire, or that came to them however way, and they’re just not doing anything with it and there’s a home on the land,” he said.

Property owners could also donate land to the land bank if they wish. In that case, the land could not be tax-delinquent; the owners would have to clear the title before donating the land.

After acquiring properties and before releasing them to new owners, the land bank will be responsible for maintaining them, as well as marketing and demolition efforts as appropriate, the proposed charter says. The land bank leaders also could decide if acquired properties are appropriate to subdivide into smaller tracts to increase housing density, such as building apartments.

According to the proposed charter, people eligible to become the new owners of these properties would either need to be:

a licensed and bonded contractor or builder whose intent is to construct, renovate or rehabilitate a property for resale subject to the regulations contained in the land bank charter; or

a person whose intent it is to make the property their primary, full-time residence.

That means that any new homes built on these properties could not immediately become short-term rentals, like tourist homes. The document says that potential owners of these properties “must commit to residing on the property in a permanent home for at least three years.”

The charter also says that “the corporation shall prioritize transfer of … (these) homes to first-time homebuyers, veterans, and families with minor children,” subject to anti-discrimination laws.

Any builders who acquire land through the land bank would be able to receive land for $1, would have to build a house on it within 16 months, would have to set a sale price for the house that does not exceed a maximum price that land bank officials would approve.

One big idea driving the program is to get more homes at “attainable” prices into the local market — especially for people who cannot afford the median listing price of $279,000 in Brown County right now.

“So, as a contractor, you can go backwards and say, “OK, at $180,000, on this land, I’m only going to be able to put in an 800-square-foot home and still make a little money off it,” Schwenk said, citing an example of how the price-setting process with a contractor would work.

The RDC met on July 22 to go section by section through the proposed charter. Four members of the public besides the board came to the meeting to give comments.

Based on that conversation, Schwenk planned to make changes to several sections of the draft, including the mission statement; the list of ways a property could become eligible for the land bank, as it was broad and did not reflect the narrower intent of the RDC; clarification on what happens if someone isn’t able to build a house on the land within 16 months; the process by which local contractors would be hired to do demolitions and/or maintenance; and reasons a land bank board member could be removed.

Longtime resident and real estate agent Donna Lutes had questions about the mission statement because it wasn’t clear what types of properties the corporation was looking to acquire. She owns several properties that she is not living on and was concerned that the land bank might try to get them.

“Tax delinquency is the umbrella over this whole thing,” Schwenk clarified.

“Or donated property,” added RDC Vice President Jim Schultz.

The charter says that the land bank directors do not have the power of eminent domain, so they cannot take people’s land when there is not some other reason why it would be subject to seizure, like not paying property taxes for years.

“This is not something where we are interested in targeting people who live in a home. This is not about targeting our residents. It’s about the fact that there are homes that I pass by every day that have not had someone living in them for 10 years,” Schwenk reiterated.

Comments about the draft can be made between now and the RDC’s next meeting, which will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26. At that time, the RDC will take another look at the charter and possibly pass a resolution supporting it. The board meets at Brown County Middle School. If it is passed then, the RDC could send the document to the county commissioners for their first meeting in September, Schwenk said.

He estimated that the earliest the land bank could be up and running would be January 2022.

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Another initiative about property also will be discussed at the August RDC meeting: The Neighbor Helping Neighbor program.

This would be a completely voluntary program by which a person who is unable to do cleanup or maintenance work on their own property could ask the RDC for help, and the RDC would connect them with a group of volunteers willing to do the work for them.

The idea behind this program is to help residents keep their properties from falling into disrepair and enable them to retain the value of what is probably their greatest asset: their home, said RDC President Justin Schwenk.

The basics of that proposal also are posted on the RDC’s website, choosebrowncounty.com. Click on “RDC Google Drive” and choose “Neighbor Helping Neighbor Program.”

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The Brown County Democrat, along with its sister daily papers in Johnson, Jackson, Bartholomew and Hancock counties, is planning a month-long series about housing needs and challenges.

Are you having trouble finding an affordable place to live?

Have you recently sold or bought a home and would like to share your experience?

Do you have plans or ideas for how to increase housing options in Brown County?

Please contact us with story or source ideas. Email [email protected].

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The Brown County Community Investment Corporation (land bank) draft charter document is posted on the RDC’s website, choosebrowncounty.com. Click on “RDC Google Drive” and then “BC Landbank Charter.”

Comments about the draft charter should be made on the “Brown County Redevelopment Commission” Facebook page under the comment thread where the land bank document is posted, Schwenk said.

Or, suggestions can be typed directly on the land bank document posted on the RDC’s Google Drive, which is linked through choosebrowncounty.com.

If you cannot make either of those options work, email comments to [email protected].

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