One Community Update
October 1, 2024

Source: www.theintelligencer.net

City leaders in Moundsville are considering a land bank as a possible solution to address dilapidated and abandoned housing in the area.

The creation of a land street use agency for the city to sell abandoned properties to residents was first discussed during an Aug. 13 Moundsville Policy Subcommittee meeting during which council members and city officials agreed at least one employee would be required to run the land bank.

During the meeting, Mayor Sara Wood-Shaw said she and City Manager Rick Healy were made aware by Marshall County Chief Tax Deputy Amy Carmichael that when a property that a city has a lien on goes to tax sale, the property can be purchased lien-free. Wood-Shaw noted the property owner can redeem the property by paying their property taxes to get the property back.

“There’s an opportunity for the city, or anyone that has a lien on a property, to redeem that property to maintain their lien,” Wood-Shaw said. “The city may have lost some of the properties it has a lien on during tax sales and not been aware of it.”

Wood-Shaw then asked City Attorney Thomas White whether the city must redeem the property yearly at the tax sale. White responded that the city “does not have to” and could always “let it go” at the tax sale.

“If you redeem it, you’re just redeeming it back into the owner’s name, so the city loses control,” White noted. “There’s been few and far between where we thought there was a smart move to redeem it.”

Another “challenge” Wood-Shaw described regarding dilapidated houses in the city is that when sold at tax sales, out-of-state corporations purchased properties in the past and then “let them sit and do nothing with them.”

“These corporations purchase the properties with dilapidated buildings on them and then do not update them,” Wood-Shaw said. “That is something we do not want to see.”

Wood-Shaw then questioned subcommittee members whether it “made sense” for the city to redeem properties with liens. She outlined that the city could redeem properties and put additional liens on them that would “grow and grow” while the property would “just sit vacant.” Wood-Shaw said it was unlikely such a property would be purchased with the liens in addition to the actual price of the property. With no one likely to purchase the property, Wood-Shaw said the city would maintain the property for “who knows how long.”

“I think all of this prefaces why we need to think about moving forward with the land bank,” Wood-Shaw said. “We have a lot of liens on empty or dilapidated properties, and we don’t want to lose them. As a city, we don’t necessarily want to be sitting on a property if we don’t have a person actively running a land bank and be able to market those around.”

According to West Virginia code Section 31-21-11, state and local governments are authorized to create a land bank program to “assist economic development” by accepting formerly used or developable properties and “preparing the properties so they can be conveyed to other parties to locate or expand businesses and create or retain jobs in this state.”

Under the program, the county is authorized to acquire properties, hold titles and prepare them for future use. Prior to acquiring any properties, the county is required to conduct “site-appropriate assessments” to determine the “environmental conditions or issues” of the property.

The registration of a land reuse agency or a municipal land bank with the West Virginia Secretary of State Business & Licensing Division requires a board of at least five but no more than 11 members.

According to West Virginia code Section 31-18E-6, a land reuse agency may employ or enter into contract an executive director, counsel and legal staff, in addition to technical experts and other individuals.

Healy outlined how the city could acquire properties because of their liens and then sell them to the land bank for a resident to purchase and build a house. He added that the neighbors on either side of the property could purchase the lot and split it in half to grow their properties.

“The beauty of either of those is it takes the maintenance out of the city’s hands,” Healy said. “We’re holding lots right now that could be sold and have a house built on them. Once you get a house there, it starts paying for water and developing utilities, resulting in high tax collected.”

Healy added the city has missed “a lot of opportunities ” because it could not sell dilapidated properties to a land bank. He noted that larger cities in the state and smaller communities similar to Moundsville, such as Beech Bottom, have created land banks and “already experienced a little bit of success with them.”

Healy’s “biggest issue” regarding creation of a land bank was that the city could not run it, as the city does not have the “company in-house” for a land bank.

With the city’s limited ability to run a land bank personnel-wise, Healy said the city could either wait until the next budget year to add a full-time employee or begin looking for a part-time employee now.

“The difficulty is that it takes a certain skill set to do this, and I think you’re going to have a difficult time finding a part-time employee who could do it and be willing to work 20 hours a week or whatever would be required of them,” Healy said. “But we have to start somewhere and decide where that starting point is.”

Wood-Shaw added that the land bank would be a “huge tool for development in the city.”

“Even if the property isn’t built on and maintained by the adjoining property owner (after being purchased from the land bank), it makes the neighborhood look nice,” Wood-Shaw said. “If the city can have someone develop a house on it, that turns the property into something else valuable that increases property values. I think it’s a really exciting idea, but we do need a staff member who can do that process, and it can’t be done with our staff that we have now.”

Council member Judy Hunt said she would “love” for the city to have a land bank. Her only question was whether a full-time employee would be required to start the bank if there were no more properties in the land bank to settle.

Wood-Shaw responded that the land bank would “probably always need a full-time employee” because acquiring and selling properties within the land bank would “be an ongoing process.” She noted the position could be part-time “just to start.”

Councilman Randy Chamberlain said retired residents who worked in the real estate business would be a “good place to start” in their search for a part-time employee.

Wood-Shaw then questioned whether any money was in the budget for a part-time employee. Healy responded that they could “look in the budget” to see if funding was available for such a position.

“We’d have to get an idea of the wage rate,” Healy added. “It’s not going to be a $10 an hour salary, and it’s going to be a decent salary.”

Healy concluded the discussion by saying he did not want the idea of a land bank to “fall off the table” and that council needed to find “some way to actually start” the land bank financially and personnel-wise.

Wood-Shaw agreed, adding that the longer city officials and council members “waited to do something,” the more money would be lost on property liens, and the more properties would sit undeveloped in the city.