City Council passes land bank amendment
Tax agreement still needs to be negotiated
City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to require an additional round of approval for a key land bank agreement that would forge alliances between the blightfighting agency and the region’s three taxing authorities.
The agreement — first passed three weeks ago — strikes a threeway partnership between Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Public Schools and the city, which would allow the land bank to toss out back taxes on dilapidated properties and return the parcels to productive use.
Despite passing the bill unanimously, some council members expressed concern that they would not have proper oversight of the contract’s terms. The agreement has yet to be negotiated in full, and Councilwoman Theresa Kail Smith introduced an amendment to the bill two weeks ago that would allow council to vote on the final contract.
“We all want to see the land bank succeed,” Ms. Kail-Smith said. “I just want to make sure that we see what we’re actually voting on before we give the final OK.”
The agreement is crucial for the land bank’s success, agency leaders have said at public meetings. Currently, the land bank must pay all back taxes on any property it acquires via the sheriff’s sale — up to tens of thousands of dollars — making it largely cost prohibitive. The taxing agreement would remove that burden, allowing the land bank to access swaths of other distressed properties.
With the new agreement in place, the land bank would likely pay a flat rate of a few thousand dollars per property — and be able to transfer ownership a year quicker than the traditional process.
The timeline for enshrining the agreement remains unclear. Discussions between attorneys for the three taxing bodies have begun recently, city officials said. Now that council has initially approved the agreement, there should be regular negotiations in the ensuing months.
Once a property is back onto the tax rolls, 50% of the city’s property tax from that property will go directly to the land bank for the next five years.
The new legislation comes amid a wave of success for the land bank in recent months. Last August, council passed another crucial agreement — called the tri-party — that allowed the land bank to take in properties from the city’s troubled inventory of more than 13,000.
“That’s why we’ve seen the land bank be so productive,” said Councilwoman Deb Gross, who stalled the tri- party agreement for more than a year.
Since then, the agency has brought more than 80 properties into its pipeline, and plans to acquire at least 100 by the end of the year.