ASHLAND — The Ashland land bank’s president got philosophical during its monthly meeting on Friday following a discussion over whether the organization should pay the back taxes of a blighted house on Maple Street in Ashland.
In October, the Ashland County Land Reutilization Corporation — also known as the Ashland land bank — paid for a title search on 147 Maple St. before agreeing to buy the property for the price of back taxes owed.
The plan discussed last month involved buying the property for $4,390, what is owed in delinquent property taxes. As the new owner, the land bank would then demolish the house and offer the property for auction. If no one bought the property, it would be offered to neighbors for $500.
However, a title search found the owners also owe another approximately $24,000 in federal income taxes, bringing the total of delinquent dues to just over $28,000.
Land bank member Denny Bittle said demolition of the house would put the land bank’s cost around $50,000 for the transaction — a number that Jerad White, the land bank’s vice president, said envelopes about three projects in one.
So the question is whether the land bank wants to spend that much on a project that, on paper, looks like an investment with little to no return.
Enter Ashland Mayor Matt Miller, who happens to serve as president of the land bank.
“Blight spreads,” he said, adding the flip side is also true. “When you clean up a property, neighbors tend to do that also.”
He said the land bank’s purpose is not necessarily to generate revenue.
“Certainly we want to behave and act in a way that seeks prudence and that follows the good sense of business standards, but in the end, we are a nonprofit. That is why we can be effective in these situations, because we don’t have to make money on every transaction. In fact, you could say, we could ‘lose money,’” he said.
“But are we really losing money when we clean up a neighborhood?” the mayor asked rhetorically.
Miller pointed out the land bank currently has around $283,000 in funds, which is generated through Delinquent Tax Assessment Collection funds, state grants and other contributions from public and private entities. (Historically, the land bank has received between $70,000 and $80,000 from county DTAC funds.)
He said the land bank has addressed 22 properties since its founding in 2018.
“Each cleanup builds the land bank’s credibility, that the land bank is effective,” Miller said.
Other land bank members agreed with Miller, pointing to the alternative route — waiting until a property is either foreclosed or bought privately — as a brutally long process.
“So if you look at it as taxpayers’ money being used to clean up our county and clean up our city, for those taxpayers that are living in that neighborhood, that are seeing that everyday — the windows busted out and so on — I’m not necessarily sure they’re going to say ‘oh, wow that was a poor business decision by the land bank to acquire and clean up that property.’
“Part of the reason we exist is because we are to solve those situations that the private market won’t solve on its own,” Miller said.
The land bank board did not decide to pay off the back taxes on 147 Maple St. on Friday. Instead, Bill Harvey, the land bank’s manager, said he would prepare an offer in compromise with the Internal Revenue Service, which is a deal between a taxpayer and the Internal Revenue Service that settles tax liabilities for less than the full amount owed.
The land bank also:
• Unanimously voted to have the owner of 223 W. Fourth St. sign a “in lieu of foreclosure” agreement so that the land bank could pay around $6,000 in back taxes, an amount Harvey said the property owners are unable to pay.
The house was recently ordered by the city of Ashland to be demolished because of it being an unsafe structure. The process of foreclosures and auctions through the auditor’s and sheriff’s office is a long process, Harvey has said.
• Accepted a vacant lot on Tarragon Drive in Cinnamon Lake. The property had previously gone to auction through the Ashland County Treasurer’s office. There were no bidders.
“So then it goes to the state, and that’s when the property’s (delinquent) taxes are written off. And then the land bank gets it from the state,” Harvey said.
The next step, he said, is to offer up the property in an auction. If no one purchases the lot, the land bank offers it as a side lot to neighbors for $500.
• The land bank did not have copies of the organization’s new policies and procedures book at its meeting Friday, a project started in started in July after an Ashland Source review of the organization found some discrepancies and possible violations.
Harvey said he was unable to get tabs for the new book printed and will work on getting board members copies in the coming weeks.
