Land banking (southern-style): Could this work for Springfield?

[Debbie Thompson]

Or another point.  Why shouldn't the city be in the business of rehabbing property?  What's wrong with that?

[thelakelander]

It goes against our decades old strategy of being in business to destroy property.

[m74reeves]

^ha!

i think people should be aware that the COJ does assist in rehabs for low income homeowners.

back to landbanking though...typically a land bank is run by an entity that is completely separate from the local government. atlanta, cleveland, and genevese co, michigan have pretty well known land banks. michigan's real estate laws are very much geared toward the problems of shrinking populations and abandoned/vacant properties, so it is extremely friendly toward land banks and getting these problem properties into the hands of land banks quickly by being able to entinguish various title issues. we can't do the same here in florida.

[Lunican]

How many times have heard the likes of Kimberly Scott say that Jacksonville is not in the real-estate business?  How many times have we heard a Council member say the same thing? 

So why does COJ own lots in Springfield? I don't believe they are for sale either.

[thelakelander]

Speaking of land banking, the DIA's new CEO Aundre Wallace was the executive director of the Detroit Landbank Authority before accepting the DIA position.


Title image from: http://detroitlandbank.org/

[sheclown]

perhaps it is time to re-visit this idea including all homes targeted in the bombing-houses-for-blight plan.

[whislert]

"COJ will have hell to pay regarding the NSP funds.  It is not in the fact that historic houses were demolished, but rather that they did not follow the guidelines for using the funds." 

Its really more fundamental than that. What the City was found lacking is the capacity to follow the guidelines. "Lack of capacity" is a technical term. The HUD Administrator "will" approve a jurisdiction's application for CDBG entitlement funds if after review of the application, several boxes are ticked:  the last box is "capacity to administer" the programs.  The City's future applications for these substantial federal funds is hanging by a thread owing to systemic administrative abuses perpetrated by Code Compliance and Neighborhood Planning Division.

[whislert]

Pardon my Newbie mistakes. This is a reply to Sheclown's previous question of where the $26 million of NSP1 funds all went to. And btw, after adding misc. funds, the NSP1 grant was actually $28 million.

Partly its a 25% overhead (10% off the top for City Admin and 16% for Non-Profits); so working backward, deduct $7 million from $28 and you're at $21 million. And then there were the funds expended to finance ownership subsidies and purchase property and that puts you most of the way there. The simpler calculus is that approximately 100 fewer dwellings were left after $28 million was spent and replacement was not correlated with removal: the process is random. Limited demolitions might make some kind of sense in JAX, which is, after all, increasing in population, if there were a premeditated plan to replace what was removed so that a neighborhood is left better than it started.  Instead there is diminishment and failure to leverage investments for synergistic effect.

[sheclown]

"COJ will have hell to pay regarding the NSP funds.  It is not in the fact that historic houses were demolished, but rather that they did not follow the guidelines for using the funds." 

Its really more fundamental than that. What the City was found lacking is the capacity to follow the guidelines. "Lack of capacity" is a technical term. The HUD Administrator "will" approve a jurisdiction's application for CDBG entitlement funds if after review of the application, several boxes are ticked:  the last box is "capacity to administer" the programs.  The City's future applications for these substantial federal funds is hanging by a thread owing to systemic administrative abuses perpetrated by Code Compliance and Neighborhood Planning Division.

what like this?

Capacity

The ability, capability, or fitness to do something; a legal right, power, or competency to perform some act. An ability to comprehend both the nature and consequences of one's acts.

Capacity relates to soundness of mind and to an intelligent understanding and perception of one's actions. It is the power either to create or to enter into a legal relation under the same conditions or circumstances as a person of sound mind or normal intelligence would have the power to create or to enter.

A person of normal intelligence and sound mind has the capacity to dispose of his or her property by will as he or she sees fit.

A capacity defense is used in both criminal and civil actions to describe a lack of fundamental ability to be accountable for one's action that nullifies the element of intent when intent is essential to the action, thereby relieving a person of responsibility for it.

An individual under duress lacks the capacity to contract; a child under the age of seven accused of committing a crime lacks criminal capacity.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/capacity

[whislert]

There you go being all literal. Sheesh. I tell you, these southern manners. All polite and genteel on the outside and then they go spoutin' Webster's damn dictionary at you like somehow there are boundaries that need mindin'. 'Bout to spin a California boy's head in circles.