KC stimulus funds to sweeten sale of Land Bank properties that add blight in the city

The Kansas City Land Bank is sitting on thousands of run-down and raggedy properties on the city’s East Side and despite bids from folks who’ve wanted to purchase and vowed to rehab and beautify the spaces, the board responsible for making it happen seems reluctant to facilitate that.

Its failure maintains blight, rather than working harder to reverse it. And that needs to change.

City Manager Brian Platt, who started his job in Kansas City a year ago, inherited the problem but now has to push this board to do its job and start selling off some of these properties — the bulk of them east of Troost Avenue in the city’s poorest neighborhoods — and getting them back on the tax rolls. That’s the charge it was given when the Land Bank was established by the Missouri legislature in 2012.

To that end, Platt and Mayor Quinton Lucas plan to release requests for proposals this week to sell off city-owned lots for $1 to turn them into affordable housing — single-family or multifamily, lease or ownership. This definitely would be a move in the right direction since everybody knows that the need for more affordable housing in Kansas City is tremendous.

Platt has set a goal to create 10,000 new affordable housing units across the city within the next five years. And he agrees that the direction of the Land Bank “needs thoughtful revisions,” and said he intends to work toward “more transparently and efficiently transfer properties to the right people for smart, community-focused redevelopment.”

An request for proposals went out earlier this year from the city, but according to Chris Hernandez, spokesman for the city, it generated few responses. The hope is that this upcoming request will get more attention since it will include a provision for additional funding for site preparation and any necessary remediation, money that will come from American Rescue Plan stimulus funds — money that was not available earlier in the year.

As an additional incentive to get the ball rolling on selling off properties, the city would include funding “to help with the capital cost of renovation if need is demonstrated,” Hernandez said.

The Land Bank’s board of commissioners is composed of five members: One member is appointed by Jackson County; one member is appointed by the Kansas City Public School District; and three members are appointed by the mayor.

The board is effectively supposed to manage and repurpose the city’s inventory of underused, abandoned or foreclosed properties, and none of that is happening. If the members of that existing board are going to continue to let dilapidated properties just rot and abandoned lots become dump sites, it may be time for new membership. In fact, recognizing that need, Lucas last month appointed new board member Ladonna Gooden from his office.

“This appointment will complement ongoing efforts to create more affordable housing opportunities for Kansas Citians,“ Lucas said at the time.

East Side neighborhoods littered with abandoned houses

The Kansas City Star, in a special report, this week reported that the city, through its Land Bank or sister agency, the Kansas City Missouri Homesteading Authority, are the biggest property owners on the city’s East Side leaving Kansas City’s poorest neighborhoods “riddled with eyesores.”

The Star’s report said that at one point the Land Bank was selling off hundreds of properties every year, but then seemed to become more concerned about maximizing the sales price for its properties “than working with neighborhood organizations to find the best use for them.”

And so the properties just sat, frustrating and angering residents who are stuck living next to those spaces that, under different circumstances, city inspectors would crack down on for code violations.

When the Land Bank slowed down on selling off properties, its former executive director, Ted Anderson, convinced commissioners to begin selling properties in bulk at rock-bottom prices to more quickly move them off the city books.

Going from one extreme to the next led to cutting corners and failing to adequately vet prospective buyers, The Star’s report said. In one deal — bad for the city — dozens of lots were sold for a fraction of their value to family members of Jackson County Executive Frank White. The promise was that 30 houses would be built on the properties. That never happened,

There were other bad deals that neither improved neighborhoods with the addition of safe and affordable housing nor added revenues through the city tax rolls.

So maybe now commissioners are overreacting and being too cautious about making deals with would-be developers promising to turn abandoned properties into useful spaces.

Holding on to dilapidated properties does nothing to improve the aesthetic and value of these neighborhoods and does cost the city thousands in tax dollars it could be collecting once properties have been developed into spaces of real worth.