Editor’s Note: This is part two of a three part series exploring common questions about the Richland County Land Bank. Part one published Monday. Part three will publish Wednesday.
MANSFIELD — As a kid, Amy Hamrick’s father taught her how to operate any piece of heavy machinery she was capable of turning on.
“She’s probably the only head of a county land bank that can operate a backhoe,” said Bart Hamilton, Richland County treasurer and chair of the Richland County Land Bank board.
The daughter of a demolition contractor, Hamrick now works on the administrative side of demolitions as the executive director of the Richland County Land Bank.
Land banks offer communities a way to reclaim and fix up vacant, abandoned, tax foreclosed properties, with the ultimate goal of reducing blight and promoting development.
The Richland County Land Bank was founded in 2013 and has since demolished more than 680 structures across the county.
Many of those were homes in Mansfield’s low income neighborhoods.
Mansfield funds its demolitions with revenue from the PRIDE tax, a levy that generates funds for parks, recreation, street lights, demolitions and emergency services.
For nearly a decade, the land bank managed demolitions on behalf of the city of Mansfield, with the city footing the bill.
The city ended that contract and began administering its own demolition program in 2023.
Hamilton and Hamrick said the land bank does not receive public funding in the form of sales, income or property tax. Its only local funding stream is a five percent cut of the county’s DTAC (Delinquent Tax and Assessment Collection) revenue — late fees paid on real estate taxes.
Those fees tend to generate around $300,000 in annual revenue for the land bank.
These days, the land bank’s work is funded primarily by state grants specifically for brownfield assessment and remediation.
Hamilton said federal funds are less common, thought the city of Mansfield and Richland County both contributed $500,000 each in federal COVID-19 relief funds to the Westinghouse project.
The land bank also received $411,000 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to pay for the environmental cleanup at the former Swan Cleaners.
How does the land bank acquire land?
The land bank acquires property in several ways, including donations and tax foreclosures.
Some land owners donate property to the land bank in order to receive a tax write off. Others do so as a deed in lieu of tax foreclosure, which allows a property owner to donate the property in exchange for having delinquent real estate taxes cleared.
The land bank can also take ownership of tax foreclosed properties which are forfeited to the state of Ohio, meaning no one purchased them at a sheriff’s sale.
Hamilton said that was common in the years following the mortgage crisis.
“People think that all real estate is worth something,” Hamilton said. “It sure wasn’t back in those days.”
Hamilton said it’s become less common for the land bank to receive those types of homes as property values have rebounded in recent years.
“If it makes economic sense to fix it, these days if it goes to sheriff’s sale, somebody is going to buy it,” Hamilton said.
As the share of blighted homes has decreased in Richland County, the land bank has shifted its focus towards commercial properties and brownfields.
Brownfields are former industrial or commercial sites that are abandoned or underused due to the presence or possible presence of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants.
The organization began taking on larger projects a few years ago, as the state demolition and brownfield remediation grants became available.
“We follow the money. We’re not afraid of stuff now like we used to be. When we first started, we were scared,” Hamilton said. “We’ve just sort of adapted to whatever cash is out there.”
The most prominent example is the former Westinghouse property, which was spurred by a $3 million state grant.
The land bank took ownership of the property and has since overseen demolition and remediation efforts. Its revitalization is still a work in progress.
Hamrick said the land bank is still working on formalizing its practices for selling larger commercial properties.
“It has been discussed and we have not really come up with a concrete solution yet,” she said.
Hamilton said the land bank usually waits until it finds an appropriate grant to take on big projects, but it has intervened when buildings become a safety hazard.
Napoli’s Pizza in Shelby and the Plymouth Hotel come to mind.
“If it’s something that’s dangerous, we’ll find the money,” Hamilton said. “We’ll get it done.”
