Proposals were made to repair poor housing and broken sidewalks with the grant.
By Nancy Peckenham
On Tuesday evening, the Newburgh City Council focused on what to do with the large number of distressed properties owned by the city, giving the green light to putting 50 of them out to auction on April 14th and hearing from a land use specialist about the creating a land bank in the city.
Prior to the start of the council’s regular session, John Nolan of the Pace University Land Use Law Center told council members how they could create a not-for-profit land bank that could get financing to fix up distressed properties and make them more attractive to potential owners. City planning director Ed Lynch later said that he expected the council to take up the issue of creating a not-for-profit at its next meeting.
The decision to hold the April 14th auction came after a discussion of the poor results in the last auction the city held on October 14, 2010. Ultimately, the city only sold two properties, both garages, because the city council rejected low bids made on other parcels. Council members agreed that a requirement that the auctioned properties be owner-occupied contributed to the low bids.
Councilwoman Marge Bell suggested that the city look at more creative ways of getting people to purchase these distressed properties and she described a program in Detroit where police officers are given a chance to purchase city-owned houses for as little as $10,000. Their presence then helps stabilize the community, she said.
Mayor Valentine argued that while auctions may not be the best solution, “they are not a curse.” He said the alternative was to hold the properties and pay all the taxes and get no income at all. The council then voted 4-1 to approve the April auction.
City planning director Lynch said that the properties on the auction block will be posted to the city of Newburgh website within the next week.
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