Creation of Luzerne County land bank proposed

Luzerne County Council may create a land bank for municipalities not already participating in one, according to Tuesday’s agenda.

Authorized by 2012 state legislation, land banks take possession of rundown parcels and attempt to get them back into productive hands.

At least 17 of the county’s 76 municipalities are in land banks.

Hazleton and Hazle Township each created their own land banks. Nine municipalities are part of the Northeast Pennsylvania Land Bank: Pittston, Avoca, Dupont, Duryea, Exeter, West Pittston, and the townships of Jenkins, Plains and Pittston. Wilkes-Barre and five other municipalities are in the Lower South Valley Land Bank — Nanticoke, Ashley, Kingston, and Newport and Hanover townships.

A county land bank creation ordinance requiring at least four of 11 votes to advance is on Tuesday’s County Council voting agenda, which starts at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Discussion is scheduled at the work session following the voting meeting.

Majority council passage and a public hearing would be necessary at a subsequent meeting for the ordinance to take effect.

Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino said he and Council Vice Chairwoman Brittany Stephenson jointly developed the plan to ensure all municipalities have access to land banks.

“The county has resources, and local municipalities may not. The county should be taking more of a leadership role,” Sabatino said, adding that he does not believe there is a “downside” to the proposal.

A county land bank also could address properties that have been stuck under county ownership or in the county’s tax claim repository with no interested buyers, Sabatino said.

Properties are added to the repository if they do not sell at popular delinquent tax auctions. The county has amassed approximately 1,000 repository properties that are in limbo, with no active owners to maintain and pay taxes on them. While some are sold each year, new ones are added after each auction.

Under the proposed ordinance, the land bank would be governed by a seven-member board of three County Council members, the county manager or manager’s designee, and three council-appointed members.

The ordinance said an executive director shall be hired to manage day-to-day land bank operations, but Sabatino said he envisions an amendment that would assign these duties to the yet-to-be-hired head of the new Community Planning and Economic Development Division, or that division head’s designee.

Sabatino said the county would follow the practices of other local land banks by cleaning up property titles and marketing available property online. Sales would then generate revenue to continue, he said, noting grants also may be available to fund the land bank’s work.

He said he is already aware of several southern county municipalities interested in participating in a county land bank.

The ordinance said vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties “adversely affect the economic and social vitality of municipalities throughout the county” by hurting property values, increasing fire and police protection costs, decreasing tax revenue, and weakening “community cohesion.”

After the land bank, Sabatino said his next push will be to create a “sustainability” advisory board to examine county land, water, and energy use — both current and projected for decades to come — so needs can be discussed and addressed.