RRS: Kudos to Belvidere, Rockford on OK’ing land bank authority

Our View: Kudos to Belvidere, Rockford on OK’ing land bank authority

By The Editorial Board of Rockford Register Star

Posted at 8:00 AM

One of the biggest problems cities and counties have is what to do about dilapidated buildings. Big box stores close and slowly turn into rotting hulks like the former Circuit City and Magna stores, both on East State Street, Rockford’s premier shopping strip.

Residential and industrial areas, too, are vulnerable to deterioriation, and it takes only one rundown property on a block to signal to neighbors that it’s time to move. That starts a cycle of declining property values and declining equalized assessed valuation.

Now there’s a tool that local governments can use to speed the process of obtaining clear title to deteriorated properties with multiple legal strings attached to their ownership. It’s called a land bank. Land banks are relatively new to Illinois but quite common elsewhere.

According to the Region 1 Planning Council, which received a $225,000 land bank grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, “the most useful tool a land bank offers against blight is the ability to provide a clear title to new purchasers. Subject properties are typically those with large debts tied to the property and cannot be sold on the private market due to value-diminishing back taxes, or other liens and liabilities. Through a judicial deed process, the land bank may acquire abandoned property, then leverage its legal ability to clear the title, then find a new buyer for the property.”

Each year, Winnebago County has more than 1,000 properties that qualify as abandoned under state law. A land bank can acquire these properties and put them back on the market, ending the cycle of declining assessed valuations.

Not all the properties at the annual county tax sale are vacant and abandoned, says the Region 1 Planning Council. However, the 2017 tax sale featured 4,323 properties in Winnebago County, compared with 1,998 in Peoria County, 805 in Champaign County and 1,560 in Sangamon County. Clearly, Winnebago County has a major problem.

Here in northern Illinois, the city of Belvidere has taken the lead in approving the Northern Illinois Land Bank Authority. Mayor Mike Chamberlain and the Belvidere City Council are to be commended for their forward-thinking passage of this measure.

The city of Rockford followed in joining the land bank authority, and the Boone County Board has voted to join, although board Chairman Karl Johnson has not yet signed the measure.

The Rockord Area Association of Realtors has endorsed creation of the land bank, as has the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.

We urge the Winnebago County Board to join the land bank and thereby create a truly regionwide effort to address blight and improve property values throughout Winnebago and Boone counties.

We note that the land bank authority will begin operating regardless of whether Winnebago County’s government joins or not. However, the county shares a jagged border with the city of Rockford, with neighborhoods that are partly in the city and partly out. To be as effective as possible, it’s better for the city and county to both be part of the land bank.

The land bank’s few opponents say the land bank is a back door attempt to bring home rule to Rockford. No, it isn’t. Home rule was defeated in a 2018 referendum, which echoed a 1983 referendum that ended home rule in the city.

Says the Region 1 Planning Council: “The city of Belvidere, as party to the intergovernmental agreement instituting the land bank, has home rule powers. The only home rule power that the land bank can utilize is related to the disposition of property. If not for home rule power, the land bank would be required to have a sealed bid process and commission an appraisal on the property to determine its value in relation to the sales price.”

The land bank can’t raise taxes and has no eminent domain authority.

Other communities have expressed interest in joining the land bank, and we can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to join.

The good news: This will happen whether Winnebago County joins or not. It would be better for the county to join. Ending blighted neighborhoods, finding new uses for shopping districts with empty stores made redunant in the e-commerce era, and creatively reconfiguring old abandoned industrial buildings is in everyone’s interest.

The land bank is an exciting tool to do these things and return hundreds if not thousands of properties to the tax rolls, something that will lessen the individual tax burden of property owners who do take care of their properties.

Above is from:  https://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20190119/our-view-kudos-to-belvidere-rockford-on-oking--land-bank-authority