Land Bank accepting offers for property

The Land Bank is getting up and running, with new powers to deal with vacant lots and abandoned properties.

Kansas City’s new Land Bank is ready to sell property – maybe not exactly primo stuff – but they’ve got deals.

David Park, Land Bank executive director, said it has taken possession of more than 2,800 former Jackson County Land Trust properties it wants to unload.

Park attended a meeting Wednesday where Land Trust Commissioner Mike Hunter pronounced, “The Land Bank is the new sheriff in town.”

Most bank properties are vacant lots, but  there are about 470 lots with some kind of structures on them, if sometimes only sheds or dangerous buildings. Park said.

Land Bank lots can be leased for community gardens for $1 a year or sold cheap for other uses. And they have a special deal as low as $1 for people who own and live on adjacent property who want to buy vacant side lots.

The county Land Trust has to get two thirds of the assessed values for its properties, now all outside Kansas City, but not so the Land Bank.

While Land Trust properties tended to be held for more than a decade with high maintenance costs, the plan is that the Land Bank will quickly put them back into private use.

Following the lead of other states, the Missouri General Assembly passed a law last year allowing land banks.

About $2.5 million has been approved for the Land Bank yearly budget, including $500,000 for demolition. The Land Bank commissioners have been meeting since December.

And now it has an office at 4900 Swope Parkway, on the second floor. It has a phone at 816-513-9020 and it has a web site: kcmolandbank.com.

Soon there will be another web site with a listing of all its properties, Park said.

“We are accepting offers for property,” Park said, and already have 10 applications. They also have people wanting to donate property to them, and that is also part of the plan.

“When you first mention it,” Park said, “people say are you nuts?” Take more rotten property?

But it makes sense to take it from some people sooner rather than later and start turning it around, he said.

“If they continue not to pay taxes on it, you’ll get it three years down the road when it’s foreclosed on,” he said.

The rules for all purchases from the bank and for its $1-to-$75 side lot program – what Park called “a low-hanging fruit” way for them to unload property – are on its web site.

Instead of griping about the tall grass in that vacant side lot, you can own it and cut the grass yourself.

Kansas City’s new Land Bank is ready to sell property – maybe not exactly primo stuff – but they got deals.

David Park, Land Bank executive director, said it has taken possession of more than 2,800 former Jackson County Land Trust properties it wants to unload.

Park attended a meeting Wednesday where Land Trust Commissioner Mike Hunter pronounced, “The Land Bank is the new sheriff in town.”

Most bank properties are vacant lots plus 470 lots with some kind of structures on them, if sometimes only sheds or dangerous buildings. Park said.

Land Bank lots can be leased for community gardens for $1 a year or sold cheap for other uses. And they have a special deal as low as $1 for people who own and live on adjacent property who want to buy vacant side lots.

The county Land Trust has to get two thirds of the assessed values for its properties, now all outside Kansas City, but not so the Land Bank.

While Land Trust properties tended to be held for more than a decade with high maintenance costs, the plan is that the Land Bank will quickly put them back into private use.

Following the lead of other states, the Missouri General Assembly passed a law last year allowing land banks.

About $2.5 million has been approved for the Land Bank yearly budget, including $500,000 for demolition. The Land Bank commissioners have been meeting since December.

And now it has an office at 4900 Swope Parkway, on the second floor. It has a phone at 816-513-9020 and it has a web site: kcmolandbank.com

Soon there will be another web site with a listing of all its properties, Park said.

“We are accepting offers for property,” Park said, and already have 10 applications. They also have people wanting to donate property to them, and that is also part of the plan.

“When you first mention it,” Park said, “people say are you nuts?” Take more rotten property?

But it makes sense to take it from some people sooner rather than later and start turning it around, he said.

“If they continue not to pay taxes on it, you’ll get it three years down the road when it’s foreclosed on,” he said.

The rules for all purchases from the bank and for its $1-to-$75 side lot program – what Park called “a low-hanging fruit” way for them to unload property – are on its web site.

Instead of griping about the tall grass in that vacant side lot, a guy can own it, cut the grass himself and give the dog and kids more room to roam.

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