County Land Bank To Provide ‘Equitable’ Change For Rural Demos By: Jimmy McCarthy, Post-Journal

From the Jamestown Post Journal

Recently, the towns of Ellicott and Chautauqua have shown interest and have been working to cobble together resources to tackle a demolition, said Peter Lombardi, chairman of the board. The corporation is trying to find a way to be more flexible, but still equitable with cities on the demos.

Mark Geise, executive director, mentioned that money from the office of the attorney general is used for up to half of the cost of demolition overall, not per property. For every dollar that the city spends on demolition, the land bank will contribute a dollar. The other stipulation is that the land bank money can only be used for properties owned by the city, county or the land bank.

"They can spend their money on private properties that have been condemned and have gone through the process," Geise said. "It would be a 50/50 match for cities. That match typically comes from Community Development Block Grant money, their own money, in-kind contributions and the shared service and landfill credits. That would make up their half.

Geise added that they are finding it very difficult for rural municipalities to come up with the 50 percent match. The rural municipalities do not have CDBG money, which hurts them, Geise said.

To be more equitable, the land bank would provide up to a 75 percent match not exceeding $12,500 per structure for the rural areas, according to Geise.

"That way we still get the total number of demos that we wanted to without exceeding $12,500 per demolition," Geise said. "It'll make it easier for the rural municipalities to accomplish. Ellicott and Chautauqua have the means to do 50/50, but some other municipalities don't, so we wanted that flexibility."

Geise explained that the owner of the property would receive a credit to manage it, similar in the way the land bank deals with the cities. The owner would be doing all the demolitions, contracting and putting out bids, which would have an in-kind value. Vince DeJoy, Jamestown Department of Development director, said the arrangement among cities and rural municipalities is fair as the city uses the match money from a combination of CDBG funding and an equal amount from the general fund that the City Council appropriates.

"(The amount) in reality is about 25 percent, if you're looking at what's coming out of the city's general fund," he said. "The other is CDGB which we're very fortunate to have access to. I see that as a very fair arrangement."