City To Offer Property Owners Vacant Lots For $100 Plus Other Costs
Cleveland Heights City Council approved a new ordinance that allows City Manager Robert Downey to sell some of the city-owned residential spaces for $100 plus closing costs
Cleveland Heights owns several vacant, residential lots around the city. And that number is only going to grow as more homes destroyed in the foreclosure crisis are bought by the city through various grants and are demolished.
In order to get rid of some of that land, the city is offering some of the bare yards it doesn't plan to use to the owners of adjoining properties for $100 plus closing costs.
Cleveland Heights City Council passed an ordinance at Tuesday night’s meeting with new procedures for transferring the titles of city-owned lots that won’t require approval from council members.
“Neighbors have put up with eyesores next to them probably for years,” said Vice Mayor Dennis Wilcox after the meeting. Residents will now be able buy the spaces at a low cost and increase the size of their yards, plant trees or create a garden.
With money from various federal and county programs and organizations, including the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, the city has purchased blighted homes and either repaired and sold them or tore down those that couldn’t be saved.
As a result, the city has acquired dozens of vacant lots, and it will take on more as more dilapidated, abandoned and nuisance homes are taken care of.
“We don’t want this inventory of vacant lots to keep accumulating,” said Wilcox.
Rick Wagner, manager of housing programs for the Cleveland Heights, said the city owns 38 lots.
City Manager Robert Downey has the authority to sell lots for $100 plus closing costs to adjoining property owners that are interested. If more than one person wants to snag the space, they can bid on the land, which starts at $100 plus closing costs and will go to the highest bidder, or they can split the space. The land would be divided among those interested and sell for a total of $100 plus closing costs, "provided the parties are willing to pay the costs of a lot resubdivision including survey costs," according to the new ordinace.
Residents next to lots purchased with money from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program have to meet certain income guidelines in order to have the opportunity to buy that land, according to council documents.
Downey will report the sales to council. The city will notify owners next to the lots.
John Hubbard
12:47 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
This is a great idea. I wonder if there is a provision for incorporated neighborhood groups or other non-profits to buy/bid for the property, as it could expedite the creation of greenspace mini-parks or community gardens.
Michelle Simakis
1:40 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
That's a good question, John. The ordinance said specifically that the city manager and law director could adopt new rules. When the 6 p.m. curfew ordinance was implemented, council made some adjustments based on recommendations from citizens and business owners. Perhaps you can share this with City Manager Robert Downey or Mayor Ed Kelley. But I know, based on what council said at the meeting last night, that a priority is to give people who've lived next to and had to deal with troubled homes and vacant lots an opportunity to increase the size of their properties and beautify the space how they'd like for a low cost. But maybe if people don't want to or can't take on the closing costs/increased property taxes (if that's the case) the next step could be offering it to a community group. Not sure what the legal issues are there, though, and obviously I can't speak for the city.
Ted Dick
10:51 pm on Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wow, this seems like a very aggressive step. Has this been done in other communities? I hope it works for the city. as planned seem like folks would be excited about the opportunity this affords. How will it affect their property values -- will it be taxed as only adding $100 to the property tax?
Michelle Simakis
9:44 am on Friday, January 20, 2012
Once the program starts, I'm going to ask council about that based on some specific examples and sales. I'll ask about the closing costs, additional property taxes, how many people have expressed interest and the number of vacant lots they own that they want to offer to the adjoining property owners. Some of the details weren't available at the meeting. Thanks for reading, Ted. I am not sure if I've asked you this directly before, but could you please add your last name per our terms of use? (www.clevelandheights.patch.com/terms.)