Delaware municipalities and counties will soon be able to operate their own land banks under new legislation signed today
One of the final bills passed in a marathon session that stretched into the early morning of July 1st, the law will allow those jurisdictions to buy and sell property if the long-term vacancy rate is over three percent.
The goal, state lawmakers say, is to take over and rehabilitate blighted areas.
“It’s incredibly important that we have the resources to come in and make significant changes and those significant changes are really going to turn neighborhoods in terms of crime, blight and we’ve got good, good people living in these neighborhood and they need help,” said Rep. Bryon Short (D-Brandywine Hundred), one of the sponsors of the bill.
Land banks will be funded through government grants and private investments.
Another sponsor, Sen. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark), says he thinks programs should be able to have a discernable effect within 12 to 18 months.
“I think that there could be rehabilitation prior to that, but this isn’t the kind of situation where the first house or the second house will magically change everything,” said Townsend. “It’s going to take time and make sure that everything is done in a coordinated way.”
The initiative had significant pushback when it was first introduced until lawmakers amended out provisions allowing land banks to have preferential bidding powers and the ability to buy multiple parcels in one action.
Wilmington City Council members are drafting an ordinance to create their own land bank in the near future.
The law takes effect in mid-September.
