A “land”-mark meeting occurred Tuesday afternoon – in more ways than one.
Members of New Castle’s newly created City Land Bank had their first official meeting Tuesday, with high hopes of reducing the negative impact out-of-state buyers have on local property ownership.
“This is exciting,” Mayor Greg York said. “This is going to be huge for our community. I’ve been waiting for something like this a long time.”
City Attorney Joel Harvey led the new group through statutory issues and a planning discussion. Members of the new group include Lisa Loveless, Jerry Walden, Dennis Hamilton, Martin Shields, Brad Crowe and Mike Broyles. Mike McKown was appointed as an ex-officio member and invitations are planned for Jerry Cash and Bill Aitchison to also join the group.
“I can’t express how thankful I am all of you accepted this,” Walden said. “This is a big deal for our city, a big deal for our county. We have a chance as a group to make something positive happen in this city. I really appreciate each and every one of you stepping up to be a part of this.”
Discussion also focused on getting county involvement on the board in an advisory capacity, such as officials from the Henry County Auditor’s office.
“If we had a representative or invited them to the meetings on a regular basis, somebody from that office would know firsthand exactly what we’re doing and what our intentions are,” York said. “I personally think that would eliminate a lot of confusion.”
Formation of a city land bank began in 2019 under the guidance of then-City Attorney David Copenhaver. Land Banks, made possible by Senate Enrolled Act 232 of the 119th Indiana General Assembly, are designed to help communities acquire tax delinquent or other problematic properties in hopes of getting other local organizations or citizens involved in improving them and ultimately getting them back on the tax rolls.
The New Castle land bank is a giant step in the right direction, York said.
“The state allows anybody to get in on an online tax sale,” York said. “That could be somebody from California, from Canada, from Phoenix, and they haven’t done any leg work or looked into the property. They might look on Google Earth and that picture’s from three years ago. After they find out they can’t flip it, they don’t do anything or pay taxes on it so it puts it behind for another two to three years.
“This is not a program that the city’s going to get rich with,” York added. “This is a program that helps us control these properties in a more satisfactory and quicker manner instead of it sitting there and being an eyesore for so long.”
The new land bank wasted no time in taking action.
At Harvey’s suggestion, members agreed the first thing to be done is acquiring a list of all city-owned properties where there’s not an obvious use.
“I thought it would be good to distribute that list and discuss which ones are the most marketable and then get those offered for sale,” Harvey said. “Then we can go on down the list on properties that may only be marketable to neighbors. One of the benefits of a land bank is you don’t have to follow all the public bidding processes the city would have to do if it wanted to dispose of properties in its own name.”
Plans are for a city list of properties to be compiled for discussion at the next meeting. The group voted to have regular monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month, so the next meeting is set for 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. It will be announced closer to the time if that meeting will be held at council chambers or electronically.
Attorney Martin Shields said Evansville has a land bank and an application process for properties that might “weed out” irresponsible buyers. Shields said an application process would help the members determine if the prospective buyer “has the resources and knowledge to do what they say they’re going to do” with a particular property.
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