OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha officials are working on a way to put new life into old lots left vacant when dilapidated properties are torn down.
The Omaha Municipal Land Bank, which helps renew older areas of the city, wants to give the city $500,000 a year for four years to raze more broken-down, unsafe properties. In return, the city would work to foreclose on what are called demolition liens - charges the city attaches to a property to cover the cost of structure demolition when the owner doesn’t pay.
The city has issued demolition orders on about 135 properties, said the city’s chief housing inspector, Scott Lane, and more are added to the list each year when owners don’t do the necessary repairs to avoid property condemnation. The city budgets roughly $10,000 for each demolition, allowing it to raze about 100 houses a year.
A city attorney, Jennifer Taylor, said the land bank’s offer would help the city eliminate the backlog rolled over from year to year.
“The goal would be that at the end of a fiscal year, we’d spent all our money and our demolition orders are at zero,” Taylor told the Omaha World-Herald .
A demolition lien, however, stands in the way of getting a property rehabbed once the structure is torn down. In many cases, Taylor said, the property is worth $500 or $1,000 but carries a higher demolition lien.
“No one’s going to pay a $12,000 demolition lien for a property that’s only worth $500 or $1,000,” she said.
The foreclosures would allow the city to acquire legal titles to the properties, freeing them for new housing or other redevelopment.
If the arrangement were to work as proposed, officials said, pockets of abandonment and neglect would blossom with new homes and other buildings.
The land bank is raising the money for demolitions and has gotten two written commitments from philanthropists so far, said Marty Barnhart, its executive director.
The proposal is scheduled for a public hearing Tuesday before the Omaha City Council. A vote is set for Nov. 20.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com
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