The City of Dayton has announced plans to acquire up to 1,000 vacant properties to be placed into a Land bank for future development. The following article in the Dayton Daily News describes the initiative.

Dayton plans to acquire 1,000 properties this year 

The city of Dayton plans to aggressively snatch up properties for land banking, with a goal of acquiring up to 1,000 properties this year.

The eventual goal: reduce the supply of excess housing in the city, identify potential areas for new development while creating parks, neighborhood squares even nature preserves. 

For Dayton City Commissioner Nan Whaley, it's a tool to improve quality of life here.

"I look at land banking as the city controlling its destiny," she said. "We need to talk about where we are going. We have wonderful opportunities."

Targeted properties have been abandoned by owners, who do not pay their property taxes. In many cases, the city has had to board up the structures and mow.

"We're already maintaining these properties," Whaley said. "We might as well control them."

The city currently has more than 10,000 vacant housing units in more than 3,800 structures. It would cost an estimated $6 million for the city to demolish its current 800 nuisance structures and an additional $25 million to bring down the entire inventory of vacant structures.

"We can't sit around and do nothing," Whaley said. "I think, for all neighborhoods, this is a win."

Typically, Dayton has only used land banking to acquire properties for specific developments or as part of the city's Adopt-a-Lot program, which enables homeowners to buy land next to theirs.

That practice has now changed.

"We're really talking about being aggressive in acquiring vacant properties," Deputy City Manager Stan Early said, in a presentation to the City Commission on Wednesday, May 7.

On April 17, the city bought 125 state, forfeited properties for land banking at a total cost of $4,000. Most of the properties were bought for $25 each, said Whaley, adding that the lots are scattered around the city.

A quasi-government authority, composed of city staff and volunteers, would hold the properties, but input from the citizens of Dayton would determine future reuse. There is no time frame set to establish this authority, but Whaley said she expects it to happen quickly.

The city plans to put the properties in the Real Estate Acquisition Program, enabling Dayton to hold on to them up to 15 years, tax free. To qualify for REAP under Ohio Revised Code, property taxes must be certified by the county as being at least two years delinquent, said Aaron Sorrell, Dayton's manager of housing and neighborhood development.

Thirty properties went through REAP in 2007 and an additional 150 to date this year. Those numbers represent just the tip of the city's overall plan.

For now, the city is merely acquiring the properties. The second step, according to Whaley, is creating a vision for what the city will look like in the future.

"The city in front of us is probably going to look different from the city behind us," John Gower, the city's director of planning and community development said. "We can take the best in the community and move those forward with us."

To view the online article, please click here.

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