Harrison County commissioners approve land bank resolutions

The Harrison County Commissioners, at their March 18 meeting, approved two resolutions, 19-26 establishing the Harrison County Land Reutilization Corp. and 20-26 as “articles of incorporation.”

According to the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Ohio legislators opened the door in 2015 for all 88 counties in the state to take advantage of having a land bank, which is an entity that acquires and manages vacant or abandoned properties and develops them for good uses.

Harrison County is one of 17 counties, according to the WRLC site, that is without a land bank, and prior to legislation waiving the 60,000-population threshold requiring land banks, only half the counties in the state were eligible. The entity is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization, and Commissioner Paul Prevot said there isn’t any one particular property they’re looking to develop.

“That land bank gets a lot of opportunities for our counties for different types of grant opportunities … specifically with Brownfields for both demo and rehab,” Prevot said.

He continued by saying there have been more than 50 properties that have been handed back to the county that have been “just sitting” and will now have the opportunity to be absorbed into the land bank for rehabilitation.

“The goal of it is to make marketable land out of land that’s apparently been forgotten, so it’s a big deal for the county,” Prevot said.

When asked why this has come about now, Commissioner Dustin Corder said this was not an “all of a sudden” move but has actually been in the process for years, fighting through some resistance and struggles. Now, there will be more opportunities to go after grants by being involved in a land bank in order to get those properties rejuvenated and back onto the tax rolls.

“Just old-school thoughts maybe, I guess,” Corder said when asked why the resistance to forming a land bank.