County land bank nearing house demolitions
LANCASTER – Neighbors say it was just last week when police were called out to an abandoned home on Zane Avenue.
"That place has been empty for the last five years," said Rick Tabler, who lives a few doors down. "People have been breaking into it for years and just last week the police came in and had to move a homeless guy out of there."
The home, 523 N. Zane Ave., was purchased along with 11 other homes by the Fairfield County land bank, called the Fairfield County Land Reutilization Corp., during sheriff's sales held last week.
On Tuesday, a crew with North American Environmental Services, of Columbus, inspected each of the homes for the presence of asbestos.
"Now that we own these properties, this is the first step before demolition," said Michael Kaper, executive director of the Fairfield County LRC.
All 10 of the homes on the Tuesday list were homes that were beyond repair and scheduled for demolition.
"We tried to get into the home at 127 Arney, but it was so full of debris from beer cans and trash that the crew couldn't get inside to do the inspection," Kaper said. "We are going to have someone come out and clean out the house before we can find out if there is asbestos in it."
Kaper said they also purchased two properties that could be rehabilitated, 1040 Sugar Grove Road and 123 Hunter Ave.
Kaper said once the buildings are demolished, they will put the properties up for sale, with the adjacent neighbors getting the first crack at purchasing them.
Mildred Joy, who lives behind the abandoned house on Zane Avenue, said she and her husband have been trying to clean parts of the property that adjoins their property since they moved in.
"There was a lot of trash there, wood and tires," Joy said. "We tried to pick up the trash and some of the wood we could use in our wood burner. It just had a lot of animals like rats and skunks living in and around there."
She said people in the neighborhood would be glad to see the property torn down.
Under Ohio Revised Code, land banks are operated as community land reutilization corporations, which are nonprofit corporations.
A blighted property would have to go through the foreclosure process, either by the mortgage holder or the county board of revision.
After that process is complete, the land bank can take the title to the property and sell it at a sheriff's sale or demolish it. A land bank also can also transfer the deed to a local government. A delinquent property owner could stop the proceedings by paying the back taxes and agreeing to improve the property. Fairfield County's land bank was created in 2013 and the county commissioners passed a resolution designating an additional 5 percent of delinquent tax collections to go toward the land bank's use.
Donna Fox-Moore, program coordinator for the Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency, said the land bank's demolition program, coming on the heels of the Ohio Moving Forward demolition grant program last year, will help clean up eyesores in neighborhoods.
"Under this program, we have about $400,000 for use to deal with a dozen properties by the land bank and another a few hundred thousand more it we can identify a total of 25 properties by September," Fox-Moore said. "All the work needs to be done by March 30."
Kaper said that once they know the results of the asbestos testing, demolition could begin as early as three weeks.
cburnett@lancastereaglegazette.com
740-681-4346
Twitter: @CarlBurnettJr
Properties scheduled for demolition by the Fairfield County Land Reutilization Corporation
208 S. Cedar Ave.
146 S. Cedar Ave.
127 Arney Ave.
410 Ogara Ave.
212 Sherman Ave.
136 Sherman Ave.
523 Zane Ave.
861 Champion Ave.
820 Denny Ave.