Council reviews draft of land bank agreement

McCOOK, Neb. — Plans for a regional land bank moved forward Monday night at the regular McCook City Council meeting.

City of McCook attorney Nate Mustion presented to the council a draft of an interlocal agreement establishing the Southwest Nebraska Municipal Land Bank.

A regional land bank is a tool municipalities can use to address vacant, abandoned or delinquent properties and to return those properties back to productive use. Under amended state law, regional land banks have the authority to acquire, clean, maintain, and dispose of nuisance property and provide a way to clear title, remove taxes and recoup a portion of property taxes to help fund the land bank. Requirements include that regional land banks must be comprised of more than one municipality through interlocal agreements, a board consisting of at least seven members, along with non-voting members and submit annual reports to the state and local entities.

Mustion said there’s been interest in joining a land bank from communities large and small, from North Platte and Lexington to the Village of Holbrook. He told the council that the Southwest Nebraska Municipal Land Bank would consist of a voting board comprised of 10 members. Annual fees from municipality members will be based on per capita numbers and be put into a general fund for the bank. From that account, funds would be allocated to a general fund account for each municipality member on a per capita basis, less administration costs.

Mustion said the land bank would be funded by annual fees from municipality members, philanthropic grants and charitable agencies. Once a project is picked out and approved by the board, municipality members can also contribute to that project on their own.

Mustion asked for a starting point for annual fees, that he could take back to other communities to give them an idea of costs. As an example, Mustion said a $10 per capita rate would require $75,000 from McCook and at $5 per capita, $35,000.

City Manager Nate Schneider said as $25,000 has been allocated the past few years in the budget for nuisance abatement, the $35,000 fee would be more doable. That way, the city could still cover any unexpected costs that could occur during the year, he said. Schneider added that he personally had trouble with using public funds to fund demolition/abatement costs of private residences.

Councilman Jerry Calvin agreed but said having dilapidated, vacant houses returned to the property tax roll was a good trade-off. Calvin said he didn’t want to underfund the bank and had no problem with the $75,000 fee. The higher per capita rate shows a strong commitment from the city to other municipality members, he said, and shows that “we’re going to make this work.” Calvin also said it seems that every city block has at least one or two houses that were deteriorating.

Per capita fees could vary, depending on the size of the municipality. Mayor Mike Gonzales cited that a $10 per capita fee for North Platte, at 23,000 people, would be $223,000. Councilman Gene Weedin suggested starting out at a $5 per capita fee that Mustion could bring to potential municipality members.

The interlocal agreement will be brought back to the council at a later date for final approval.

According to the proposed agreement, projects chosen by each municipality member have to be approved by the regional bank board and project costs cannot exceed the sum of money held in the member’s general fund unless alternative funding for the project has been arranged and approved by the board.

Board members of the regional land bank must be a resident of one of the member municipalities and are not compensated. Requirements for board members include that they have experience in the areas of chamber of commerce, banking, real estate, as a realtor, non-profit affordable housing and at least one with experience in large scale residential or commercial property rental. A single voting member can satisfy more than one of the requirements.