Madison Township seeks title to Land Bank property

ThisWeek CW 09/10/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/09/04/madison-township-seeks-title-to-land-bank-property.html

Madison Township officials are hoping to trade one kind of green for another by requesting the title to the first of about 10 properties where structures have been demolished as part of the Franklin County Land Bank program.

Township trustees voted unanimously Aug. 19 to approve legislation seeking the title. Township Administrator Susan Brobst said the process of getting a parcel from its status as blighted township property to tax delinquency to Land Bank demolition then to auction forfeiture by the state can take months but ultimately could result in some minor revenue for the township.

“The state of Ohio is ready to forfeit the property at 3317 Latonia Court over to Madison Township at no cost to us if you will approve it,” Brobst told township trustees at their Aug. 19 meeting. “This was the first demolished property as part of the Franklin County Land Bank program and since they have had no bids on it, we can ask the state to deed it over to us and then we can sell it.

“Once we have the deed, we can put sales signage on the property and we’ll put additional information on our website.”

Brobst said other than an apartment complex that once stood at 3232 Winchester Pike — a site now owned by the township — all the other properties are small lots that do not provide the township with other use options except to sell them.

“Similarly, with many of the other sites, unless someone else thinks of another township use for them, we’ll just resell them to developers,” she said.

The Latonia Court site “is just a single home lot and is very isolated, so I think selling it would be the best use for the township,” Brobst said.

“We’ve got to keep mowing these as long as they are in this process or owned by us, so getting rid of them will be a big help taking them off our mowing schedule,” she added. “And then, besides the sale price, we would be able to collect real estate taxes again.”