By Eugene T. Lowe
May 1, 2006

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley hosted mayors and city officials at an April 6 meeting of the newly formed Vacant and Abandoned Properties Task Force. The task force is chaired by Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi. As host, Baltimore served as a case study of a city which has been very successful with the problem of vacant and abandoned properties.

O’Malley, Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano and Assistant Commissioner for Land Resources Michael Baninum presented the Baltimore plan (Project 5000) for turning vacant and abandoned properties into opportunities for the city. The mayor explained how he made the decision to get title to 5,000 of Baltimore’s vacant and abandoned properties in two years. It was a big goal which many said would never work. But it was done through three basic ways: tax sale foreclosures, quick takes, and traditional acquisitions. The city now has title to more than 6,000 properties. O’Malley said, “We set a high acquisition target, helped galvanize the public around this key issue… People want big targets. They want to know that we’re going someplace on the horizon.” O’Malley advised, “Don’t be afraid of setting goals.” (For a more detailed account of the Baltimore project, see accompanying article here.)

In the afternoon session, themes introduced in the discussion of Baltimore’s Project 5000 were further developed from the perspective of the experiences of other cities. Melissa Barry, Louisville Metro Housing and Community Development Director, discussed “land banks” and more specifically her city’s “Blight Buster” project. One of the first in the nation, Louisville started its land bank in 1988 to address the barriers of disposing property. She said that cities have different barriers and they would have to develop ways to deal with their unique situations. Barry discussed a number of tools, which she credited Louisville-Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson as playing a key role in developing. One of the tools is the abandoned urban property tax. This tax is triggered by vacant property that has been delinquent for three or more years or is blighted property as identified through code enforcement. The property is then triple taxed. That is, if the regular tax is 50 cents on one hundred dollars, the abandoned urban property tax would increase the tax to $1.50 per $100 dollars. Barry said that this “has been an extraordinary deterrent.”

Dan Kildee, Genesee County (MI) Treasurer, extended the discussion of land banks in a presentation that focused on “how we collect taxes in the first place, how we foreclose on property, and then what we do with it.” Kildee said, “These are not separate issues.” He said that with regard to vacant and abandoned property, “Selling tax liens to finance delinquent taxes has no place in 21st century municipal finance.” Selling liens generally don’t result in clear title. Instead, Kildee said, “In Genesee County, we get a clear judicial foreclosure. We get clear marketable title to the property, title to the county. Tax liens are gone.”

The final session explored how York (PA) adopted a strategy to deal with vacant and abandoned properties. York Mayor John Brenner, accompanied by John Kromer, Senior Consultant, Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania, led the discussion. Brenner described how the city got a handle on the problem by conducting a study to determine the number of vacant and abandoned properties, and how that study led to a nine step initiative. Out of 350 properties identified, it was decided to go after the 208 worst properties in the city. Great progress is being made in what is called the 208 program. Brenner described some of the new homes that have been developed in the program.

Kromer said, “It is “essential for the mayor to make a public commitment to deal with the issue. You have to have a plan.” Kromer said further, “And if you have a plan and if you do that, then every year in even the worst neighborhoods, you’re going to be able to point to some progress, something that’s happened that makes the neighborhood different from what it was last year, and that’s what Mayor Brenner’s plan is all about. When you come to York, he and his staff can point to what’s gotten done and how that’s part of an overall effort to improve things.”