Highland County land bank revises policies on side lots, minimum sale prices

Members of the Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) board voted to amend several of their policies and procedures during their monthly meeting Thursday, June 20.

In response to discussions at recent meetings, the board’s legal counsel, Todd Book, brought “several proposed amendments” for consideration Thursday.

As previously reported, during the board’s April 19 meeting, Book asked the board if they wanted to revisit their current policy of selling side lots for $100 and another policy that the HCLRC can “never sell a piece of property for less than $300 except for the side lot.” Board president Terry Britton asked Book to put together “some recommendations” to review.

The board continued to debate potential changes during their May meeting before taking action Thursday.

One of the changes was that additional guidance was added for the side lot program. Prior to their current administration, the land bank made what they referred to as “side lot” sales to neighbors of parcels owned by the HCLRC, sometimes when they received no other offers. The Highland County Press has reported on the HCLRC making offers to neighbors at half the price of the valuation of the properties in the past.

As explained by Book in May, to qualify as a side lot, the parcel must be ”something that is ineligible for new development.” He said Thursday the update to the board’s policies “puts more parameters in place.

“It’s stating that the property must contain less than .15 acres before it can even be considered to be in the side lot program,” Book said. “We also changed the price.

“Previously, through the side lot program [parcels could] be sold for $100. That numbers would be proposed to be changed to $500 for the side lot program. If someone was buying several side lots, if we thought it was worthwhile, we could sell any additional parcels beyond two at $300 per lot.”

Book said it is “a discretionary program, not mandatory,” so it is up to the board to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to classify a parcel as a “side lot,” even if it fits the criteria.

This was the only amendment with any discussion Thursday, as board member David Daniels asked about a potential scenario in which they had “three or four smaller pieces of property that now make up a fairly good-sized buildable lot, side by side by side by side,” that has “value.”

Book pointed out that the land bank board would have both “discretion of whether it even goes into the side lot program,” and “if it does, you don’t have to sell them for $300.

“If we would ever run into that situation where there may be three or four or five contiguous small pieces of property, we may not want to do that under the side lot program to begin with,” Book said. “We really may want to combine those into one piece of property and sell it through the vacant lot program or some other type of program.”

As mentioned, another change approved by the board is raising the minimum price for which property can be sold from $300 to $500.

“There's also some language added to give the land bank more guidance when it comes to how it would sell its property,” Book said. “In particular, that language states ‘when determining the fair market value, the land bank will reference the current county auditor assessed value for the real property, also taking in consideration any improvements to the lot, including but not limited to water and sewer taps and improved street access. The land bank will attempt to dispose of the real property for no less than two-thirds of said auditor value. However, the land bank can sell for less than two-thirds of auditor’s valuation when such a sale is deemed appropriate by the land bank.’”

An amendment was also made to selling vacant land, removing the provision of notifying adjacent landowners of the sale.
 
“If we have a piece of vacant property, under the current rules, that requires that we have to give notice to interested property owners, adjacent property owners,” Book said. “I feel like that just puts another burden on us.

“I thought that was a cleanup that would be wise for the board.”

In other discussion:

• Through four separate motions, the board awarded four bids to H&H Environmental, who submitted the lowest bid on each of the four packages for asbestos remediation for the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization properties.

As noted by land bank coordinator Jason Johansen, the number of properties needing remediation has again been lowered, from 16 to 14, as two parcels came in “under the threshold.”

Approved were bids in the amount of $3,100 for three parcels in Hillsboro (226 E. South St., 264 E. Beech St. and 112 W. Collins Ave.); $1,800 for three parcels in Hillsboro (8293 US 50 East, 8321 US 50 East and 7377 Beechwood Rd.); $8,350 for parcels west of Hillsboro (2580 SR 134 in Buford, 2850 US 50 in Hillsboro, 114 N. Main St. in Lynchburg and another N. Main Street parcel in Lynchburg); and $3,000 for four parcels in the Leesburg/Greenfield areas (11884 SR 771 and 419 Market St. in Leesburg, 8531 US 62 North in Hillsboro and 651 Jefferson St. in Greenfield).

Johansen said they have not worked with the contractor before, but he reviewed their credentials and has “heard good things about them” while vetting them.

• In an unrelated motion, the board also authorized a request for proposals bid packet for all properties targeted under the new Building Demolition and Site Revitalization program.

As previously reported, the HCLRC submitted 41 properties (18 properties in Liberty Township; six in Dodson Township; three each in Fairfield, Madison and Paint Townships; two each in Brushcreek Salem and Union Townships; and one each in New Market and Clay Townships) and is seeking both the $500,000 set-aside and an additional $150,000 from the state, committing a $50,000 match for a total of $700,000.

Sealed bids are to be accepted through July 17 and will be opened at the board’s July 18 meeting, according to Johansen, although they are still awaiting word from the state on their application.

“[The state] should have those out by the end of the month,” Johansen said. “They also asked each county to provide a priority list, so we went ahead and did that to show them that we have every intention of using the full $650,000 on our 41 demolition projects and then drawing down $50,000 in administrative funding for the land bank for the time spent with the grant program.”

Daniels asked how they determined the ranking for the projects. Johansen said it was primarily based in order of “how they came in,” with priority given to 222 McClain Ave., because they own it, and other parcels based on factors such as “how bad” the building condition is.

As the state has also not yet released the funding for the Brownfield Remediation Grant program, for which the county has a $1 million set-aside, there was little for Johansen to report. He did note that the state requested “some additional information on two of the projects” — the Rocky Fork Truck Stop, which was also funded through the first iteration of the Brownfield program, and a former gas station on East Main Street in Hillsboro — and that the land bank’s environmental consultant, Matt Wagner of TetraTech, responded.

Johansen added that he is hoping that “by the end of the month,” the state will make their funding announcement.

“We didn't request any more than our million set-aside, so we should get our million dollars and be able to start on those projects,” he said.

• Johansen and Leesburg Village Administrator Amy Palmer spoke to the board about two parcels in Leesburg — one at 125-1/2 West Main St. and one at 21 S. Fairfield St. — that are currently in court and may come into the land bank’s possession.

“The solicitor would like a CIC [Community Improvement Corporation] or land bank to be the receivers of the two properties,” Johansen said.

Palmer said the Village wants to “turn these two over as demo properties” and have obtained quotes. They also have someone potentially interested in rehabbing the South Fairfield Street residence, but the decision is up to the judge, she said.

“The property 125-1/2 West Main is a trailer property,” Palmer said. “The demo price on it is $6,700, and the 21 Fairfield Street, it is a residence that had two different dwellings inside the one residence — you can't get from one to the other — and it was $12,850 to do that one.”

Johansen asked if the land bank would be acquiring both properties regardless of whether the judge decided that demolition or rehabilitation was the better option.

“I think you guys would still become the receiver,” Palmer said, and in response to another question from Johansen, confirmed that they “would have 90 days to demo” once receiving the parcels. It was also discussed that the land bank would be responsible for covering those costs.

“With those demo prices, I think that we wouldn't have an issue recouping our funding there,” Johansen said.

As the agenda included a request for a motion to approve the land bank as receivers, Britton asked if it would be better to “wait until the judge” issues a decision first.

“I would just need, I guess, to tell the judge that you guys would be willing [to receive the properties],” Palmer said.

Britton pointed out that if the judge wanted the properties rehabbed, “then that changes our game a little bit because we've never done” that.

Book suggested that he, and/or Johansen, should attend the next hearings in court, which Britton said “sounds good.”

• In other legal and compliance issues, Book said that the Highland Holiday Association is seeking $792 in past “homeowner dues” dating back to 2019 for two parcels on Heather Moor Trail owned by the land bank.

“This property was acquired through a foreclosure process, so we're going to work with the association to see what we can do here,” Book said. “We have only owned it for about a year, and we're fine with paying stuff since we’ve owned it, but I'm a little concerned about previous amounts.”

Book said he hoped to have more information for the board at their July meeting.
 
• The board voted 4-0 to approve the sale of a vacant property on US 62 to a neighboring landowner, Mark Shelton.

The land value for the parcel was listed at $28,700 because it is “incorrectly listed at 16.48 acres” instead of its actual 1.703 acres, as brought out by Johansen at a past meeting. Johansen said Thursday that they used the auditor’s assessed value per acre to come up with a value of $2,965.78, and Shelton agreed to purchase the parcel for $3,000.

“This [parcel] was brought to our attention by adjacent neighbor who has cared for about half the property,” Johansen said. “He brought it to us in July of 2023, and he provided us a survey that he had conducted on the property in 2008, showing the actual acreage.

“It’s nondevelopable property. I can't even get a good picture. It's very overgrown. It's runoff swale. We talked with [Shelton], and we kind of came up with a with a pricing point of $3,000, and that would get it back into the tax base.”

Johansen added that the parcel also failed to sell at two different sheriff’s sales and “went to forfeited land owned by the state of Ohio.”

• The board was informed about another potential parcel that may come into their possession, with this being “an abandoned doublewide” on Heather Moor Trail in the Rocky Fork Lake area. According to Johansen, the delinquent taxes ($13,815.27) on the parcel exceed the estimated land value ($10,900).

“We've had an interested individual call quite a few times. He tracked down the owner,” Johansen said. “[The individual is] interested in fixing it up, cleaning up the property.

“The owner has said that he would donate it to the land bank. I have not spoke with that owner. I've just been speaking with their trusted individual who had tracked down the owner.”

However, Johansen said a title search on the property revealed “multiple liens,” including one that is “almost $32,000” from a bank that no longer exists.

“There’s about 10 different things on there that would need to be worked through, so we'll see what we can do there,” Johansen said. “I think it would be great if someone else wants to kind of use their own funding to fix it up, and in a neighborhood that is needing some rehabilitation throughout.”

• The board approved the financial report as presented by Johansen. Johansen reported a beginning balance of $428,856.08 and an ending balance of $362,735.20 for May.

Checks cleared included payments to contractors for asbestos abatement and surveys, a grinder pedestal repair and building demolition; Johansen’s salary and expenses, including travel expenses to two conferences; legal and auditing fees; and utility fees.

Johansen said that they still have several pending reimbursements from the Department of Development, with one ($59,073.45 for Rocky Fork Truck Stop work by Tetra Tech) approved this month and two more ($58,672.32 for the land bank’s replacement demolition projects done by Evans Landscaping and $3,416.68 in administrative costs) expected to be approved by the end of the month. Also still outstanding are $14,000 in reimbursements for phase one Brownfield assessments and $16,400 in reimbursement for asbestos surveys on the Building Demolition sites.

Also authorized was a list of unpaid bills, totaling $22,949.39. Among those bills was a $298.72 payment to the Village of Greenfield, which was highlighted by Johansen.

“We did have some unpaid water and sewer bills on 222 McClain Avenue, which we acquired from Fannie Mae in the village of Greenfield about two months ago,” he said. “That was about roughly $300 that we need to clear that off so when we sell that, that's not something that new owners have to pay.”

Johansen also noted that the land bank’s financial audit was complete, and state auditors indicated that “everything looked great.”

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