Year-Long Effort Pays off with Historic Win

Land Bank Bill passes, signed into law

On a cold and blustery day in December, hundreds of grassroots leaders from across the state met with nearly every legislator in Ohio to advocate for House Bill 313 – the bill allowing counties to establish a County Land Reutilization Corporation or land bank.  MVOC leaders such as Mary Krupa, member of the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition, went from office to office to tell her story to legislators that day.
 
“On my block alone there are six abandoned buildings,” Krupa would say.  “We need this bill to pass so we have the tools to deal with vacant properties.  This is a crisis for our neighborhoods and we can’t sit around any longer.  We have to act.” 

She and other community leaders would make several trips to Columbus over the past year working to get the bill passed.

On March 24, Krupa and MVOC’s hard work paid off as HB 313 was successfully passed by Ohio’s Senate in a 31 to 1 vote.  The bill then returned to the House with amendments where it was passed a day later and signed by Gov. Ted Strickland on April 7.

The bill provides for the creation of land banks, which are considered a national best practice for acquiring vacant and dilapidated property in a timely manner in order to put land back to productive use. Land banks decrease speculative purchases of properties and promote local ownership of property. Currently, Cuyahoga County is the only county in Ohio authorized to construct a land bank and has developed a national model raising more than $50 million for their vacant property strategy.

The bill’s passage comes on the heels of MVOC’s second statewide lobby day in support of the legislation. On Tuesday, March 9, a team of community leaders from Youngstown and Warren traveled to Columbus to meet with state legislators in a final push for the bill, which is endorsed by State Senators Joe Schiavoni (D-Canfield) and Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) in the Senate and was co-sponsored by Representative Bob Hagan in the House.

Schiavoni said the bill is a positive step for the area and will assist in turning problematic properties around for “productive use.”
“This legislation will be extremely beneficial to the Mahoning Valley by adding another tool for restoring our communities,” said Schiavoni. “It’s no secret that cities in the Valley have high numbers of vacant, abandoned structures and establishing a county-wide land bank is an important step to resolving blight.”
Land Banks potentially will play a key role in addressing the foreclosure crisis in the Valley and in the state.  Ohio set another record last year with nearly 90,000 new foreclosure filings, a 3.8% increase over 2008. A new report by the non-profit Policy Matters Ohio found that 64 of Ohio's 88 counties saw an increase in foreclosure filings, and in 34 counties, filings grew by double-digit rates.

"The number of foreclosures in the state remains at crisis levels, and all signs point to more growth," said David Rothstein, Policy Matters researcher.

Leaders from MVOC said that while passage of the Valley is a significant triumph that the bill is useless if local municipalities don’t come together to form the Reutilization Corporations.  Community Leader Chris Travers said, “The victory is half complete.  We now need our county and city officials to come together as they have in Cuyahoga to get the Land Bank up and running.  This needs to happen this year,” he said.

MVOC is planning a community meeting to discuss the creation and implementation of a Land Bank for the Valley.  For more information contact Phil Kidd at phil@mvorganizing.org