Logan County to apply for aid to cleanup derelict properties

 

[September 18, 2020] 

At the Regular Logan County Board meeting on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 the board approved Planning and Zoning Chairman David Hepler’s motion to apply for the Strong Communities Program. This is the first round of grant applications.

An August 27, 2020 press release in Lincoln Daily News explained the program: “Created in 2020, the Strong Communities Program provides grants of up to $250,000 to local government agencies to return vacant residential properties to productive and taxable use through rehabilitation.” If a property is “beyond repair and negatively impacting neighboring residences, the program may also provide funds for demolition.”

Other eligible activities covered in the grant are property acquisition and “all reasonable and soft construction costs” related to rehabilitation.

Municipalities may also be reimbursed “for tree, shrub and debris removal, lot treatment and greening, and other reasonable costs associated with returning blighted properties to productive use.”

The Strong Communities Program is available throughout the state. Municipalities and counties may apply. The grant assists with costs for “acquisition, maintenance, rehabilitation, and demolition of abandoned residential property in their jurisdiction.”

The application gives a definition and criteria of “Abandoned Residential Property” that will be used for the Strong Communities Program.

Abandoned residential property shall mean residential real estate that either one of the following conditions are shown to exist:

A) Is not occupied by any mortgagor or lawful occupant as a principal residence;

B) Contains an incomplete structure if the real estate is zoned for residential development, when the structure is empty or otherwise uninhabited and in need of maintenance, repair or securing;

Or two or more of the following conditions are shown to exist:

A) Construction was initiated on the property and was discontinued prior to completion, leaving a building unsuitable for occupancy, and no construction has taken place in six months;

B) Multiple windows on the property are boarded up, closed off or smashed through, broken off or unhinged, or multiple window panes are broken and unrepaired;

C) Doors on the property are smashed through, broken off, unhinged or continuously unlocked;

D) The property has been stripped of copper or other materials, or interior fixtures to the property have been removed;

E) Gas, electrical or water services to the entire property have been terminated;

F) One or more written statements of the mortgagor or the mortgagor's personal representative or assigns, including documents of conveyance, indicate a clear intent to abandon the property;

G) Law enforcement officials have received at least one report of trespassing or vandalism or other illegal acts being committed at the property in the last 6 months;
 

H) The property has been declared unfit for occupancy and ordered to remain vacant and unoccupied under an order issued by a municipal or county authority or a court of competent jurisdiction;

I) The local police, fire or code enforcement authority has requested the owner or other interested or authorized party to secure or winterize the property due to the local authority declaring the property to be an imminent danger to the health, safety and welfare of the public;

J) The property is open and unprotected and in reasonable danger of significant damage due to exposure to the elements, vandalism or freezing; or

K) Other evidence indicates a clear intent to abandon the property;

2.) The real estate is zoned for residential development and is a vacant lot that is in need of maintenance, repair and securing.

Applications will receive up to 100 points and be scored based on five areas that include need, capacity, impact, budget and cost reasonableness and readiness to proceed.

The program is looking for active revitalization plans from applicants. More points are given if the municipalities also have HUD related grants.

At the September Planning and Zoning Committee meeting, Logan County Zoning Officer Will D’Andrea said the city has an inventory of vacant properties.

Hepler said the county has done its part and hopes the city will respond in kind and apply. The county could help support their application. It would be a good city and county collaboration, which is what many people would like to see. It could also send a message to investors that we will work with them.

[Angela Reiners]