Deconstruction Management Blog

An abandoned house on East 78th Street

The newly incorporated Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp (The Land Bank) holds great promise for helping cities reutilize distressed properties, rebuild neighborhoods and shore up declining tax bases.  As a partner with cities and other units of government, lenders and individual property owners, the Land Bank has the potential to restore housing markets, rebuild communities and change development patterns on a regional scale, targeting future growth and development to core areas. 

The overriding question community leaders have asked themselves throughout the evolution of the Land Bank is “What decisions can we make today that will shape our future?”  By re-imagining our region as a stronger, more vibrant place of opportunity, we have the unique ability to learn from our past and recent failures to drive our regional economy to a new tomorrow.

Leading off the discussion was Land Bank chairman and Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis.  A true public servant, Mr. Rokakis has led the office of the County Treasurer since 1997 and has succeeded in expanding programming, enhancing tax collection procedures, increasing revenue and services all while saving taxpayers dollars by reducing staff levels.  With his sights set on the plague of vacant and abandoned properties throughout the area, Mr. Rokakis worked with the team responsible for the drafting and subsequent adoption of Ohio HB 294 that was passed in December of 2008. By creating the entity through a state charter, the new corporation can act more expediently in the acquisition of vacant and abandoned properties than any other entity. The Cuyahoga County Land Bank is an active land bank in that it has money to buy land that contains an existing structure. Mr. Rokakis stated that the long term goal of the Land Bank is to become the “go-to place in the county where property can be deposited.” Recognizing the slow and agonizing nature of an organization with such visionary goals, the Land Bank maintains very clear and defined goals for 5, 10 and 15 years into the future to preserve the organization’s mission and focus.

Also speaking on the panel was Gus Frangos, President of the CCLRC (aka The Land Bank). Mr. Frangos detailed the challenges of creation and unique operations of the County Land Bank. Recognizing the challenge laid out before him, Mr. Frangos is eager to attack the formidable beast and change the landscape of the community forever. “You can’t stabilize anything until you stop the hemorrhaging” said Mr. Frangos as he discussed the current goals of the Land Bank. One very differentiating characteristic of the Land Bank, as explained by Mr. Frangos, is the desire to become a fully independent, self sufficient, revenue producing entity. In order to grow the operation to become what they leaders envision, the unit must produce a reliable revenue stream so as to be leveraged and bonded. That is going to be very tough when you are given the hand that they have been dealt.

The panel also included Sally Martin, Housing Manager for the City of South Euclid, Terry Schwarz, Senior Planner at Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, John Wilbur, Assistant Director of the Cleveland Department of Community Development and Paul Alsenas, Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.

These public forums are meant to provide the community with insight into the steps being taken to address our region’s most urgent problems. To hear a podcast of this and other previously held forums, visit the college’s website at http://urban.csuohio.edu/forum/.

 image credit: Care2