Often a demolition is more than a demolition-it can be the catalyst for saving a neighborhood.
That was the thinking behind the Nuisance Abatement Agreement between the City of University Heights and the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, commonly known as the Cuyahoga Land Bank, signed in the winter of 2010. The mutual agency agreement authorizes the Cuyahoga Land Bank to assist in planning nuisance abatement actions related to abandoned and foreclosed properties and already it has paid off enormously.
“We have been happy with the agreement and have seen its benefit to the City, both through the demolition of an unattractive abandoned house that was in foreclosure and the rehabilitation of two neglected properties,” says University Heights Mayor Susan Infeld. ” In all three cases the Cuyahoga Land Bank was able to use its resources to acquire the properties.”
Word of the partnership’s success spread to other cities in Cuyahoga County and the Cuyahoga Land Bank now has executed similar agreements with Cleveland, East Cleveland, Lakewood and Oakwood Village. The agreements became possible because statutory changes allowing for the creation of land banks now allow those same organizations to serve as agents for cities in nuisance abatement activities where such actions are mutually beneficial.
The affected properties now have a positive future. “The property with the demolished house was turned over to the City for the future development of a garden,” Mayor Infeld reports. “The two homes being repaired and upgraded remain under the ownership of the Land Bank and both houses will be sold to families.”