County starting land bank to deal with eyesores

FREMONT – Sandusky County is starting a land bank to take vacant properties delinquent on taxes and sell them to people who could turn them into something that generates property tax for the county.

The Sandusky County commissioners are working to form a board for the land bank. The board will hire someone — likely part-time — to run it.

The goal is to take eyesores that no one is using and turn them into properties that benefits the county and its residents, Commissioner Charlie Schwochow said.

A proprty north of Clyde, for example, is vacant and run down, and the owner is delinquent on $18,000 in property tax, Schwochow said. But the property is only worth $5,000, so whoever inherited it from the owner would have problems selling it, he said.

"Whoever takes it inherits those taxes," Schwochow said. "We want to get that land into something where they're going to pay taxes.

For the bank to take the property, it must be vacant and delinquent on taxes, Commissioner Dan Polter said.

"It's not a land grab," Polter said.

The county will write off the delinquent taxes with the goal of finding a new owner who can turn the property around and also start paying taxes.

Western Reserve Land Conservancy of Cleveland is helping Sandusky County set up its land bank, the commissioners said. There is no timeline for when the bank will be operational.

The land bank is separate from county government and will be run by a board that comprises the county treasurer, two commissioners, a representative from Fremont and a representative from the Sandusky County Township Association.

"It's another tool in the toolbox to get the land back to a useful state," Schwochow said.

The land bank will decide which properties to obtain, Polter said. In addition to the land near Clyde that Schwochow mentioned, there are some properties in Bellevue that might be considered, Polter said.

The commissioners used $25,000 from from the county's tax foreclosure fund to start the land bank, Polter said. The land bank is not expected to make a profit but should pay for its employee through revenue from properties sales and money from a delinquent tax fund at the county treasurer's office, he said.

"The land bank probably won't make a lot of money on sales," Polter said.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM