With the City of Butler poised to approve the establishment of a land bank before the end of this month, another Pennsylvania land bank shared a little of what it has learned in its years of operation.

Aaron Snippert, executive director of Erie Land Bank, spoke about some of its successes, as well as the challenges it overcame in its efforts to improve the City of Erie.

He said the bank was originally established with the goal of combating blighted properties and out-of-area negligent landlords in the city.

“We’ve seen how properties were cycling through the judicial tax sales,” Snippert said. “It was repeat offenders, those chronically blighted properties that get bought by an out-of-town property owner and then three years later, they’re right back up for sale.”

Snippert said the land bank was formed by ordinance in late 2016. However, it took until late 2018 before it was properly supplied with seed money.

Ultimately, Snippert said he feels the land bank has managed to get the city “ahead of the curve” in terms of blight mitigation and has helped push back against negligent property owners.

“We were fighting (blight) for a long time with minimal resources and using our eminent domain powers under the redevelopment authority,” Snippert said, “but that requires a substantial amount of manpower, even on the city side, to get those properties into that process.”

Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said Butler’s redevelopment authority does not routinely use eminent domain. He said the authority normally will rehabilitate properties itself, while the land bank will look for developers to take over.

Snippert said the Erie-based land bank also has some other benefits when it comes to blight mitigation. The land bank is able to purchase properties out of judicial tax sales and can make agreements with taxing bodies, such as school districts, to extinguish taxes and liens.

With those agreements, he said, property can move through the land bank much more quickly than it can through a redevelopment authority.

“When you look at a property that’s got tax issues or a tangled title, on the redevelopment authority’s side, we’re looking at five to six months,” he said. “When you go to the land bank side, in essentially two months we can clear all of the issues.”

An area in Erie that Snippert is particularly proud of is West Fourth Street.

“In a year’s time, we acquired and demolished seven properties in a two-block area, and just the transformation that has come from that … there were certainly improvements to (residents’) front yards. They trim trees, clean bushes — they just took a little more pride in it,” he said.

While Snippert believes the land bank has found its footing, he acknowledged the way it operates may change in the future. As for now, he said the land bank has learned a lot over its operation.

“We pivoted on a few things, and I wouldn’t say we’re 100% there and we’re 100% the way it’s going to be in five years, but we’re better off through lessons learned of selling properties, disposing of properties and such,” he said.

He said one of the greatest challenges the land bank faced after it started up was advocating for itself, whether in front of city council or another taxing body. After years of operating, most organizations the land bank interacts with are familiar now.

“We had to sit there and explain to (boards) that you either exonerate the taxes or it’s going to sit there for another 30 years and not going to do anything,” Snippert said. “So now I think it’s become almost common knowledge what the land bank is doing, why it’s doing it and nobody really argues about it.”

He said if he could go back in time, he would try to pursue conversations with community partners earlier.

“Certainly, we had involvement from city council, but we didn’t have a conversation with county council until after we had an ordinance for city council and were seeking a memorandum with the county.

Even with support from city council, he says he wishes he could show them what blight in the city can really look like.

“A lot of times, these city council members traverse to city hall the same route down the same streets through the more desirable areas,” he said. “They don’t go into the neighborhoods that are highly distressed and see the issues.”

He said community members, especially local landlords and investors, used to call the land bank and claim that it was “grabbing properties for no reason.” However, over the years, he said that stopped, too.

“We continued the same narrative and the same transparency and ethical standards to the point. We were trying to explain to the local investors we’re acquiring properties to keep Erie properties in Erie hands,” he said.

He said of 83 bidders in last year’s judicial tax sales — or public auctions after a property has failed to sell at an initial tax auction — 60 were not from the Erie community. When properties are listed by the bank, he said it routinely gets called from out-of-state property owners expressing their desire to save their property.

“I think people and these equity firms and investors from out of town get complacent with notices of violation,” Snippert said. “They think they can make a phone call, tell us they’re going to take care of it, then not follow up and be good for six, eight, 12 months.

“The first thing I usually say is, ‘understand, this is not a notice of violation. I’m going to take your property because you haven’t done anything to it and the land bank’s going to own it, and we’re going to be stewards of it for the community,’ and the tune changes a bit.

“Of course, they say they’ll comply, but they really never do.”

He also said it’s important to hold the developers accountable in their agreements, as some have failed to develop the property or did not pay taxes. To combat this, the bank has taken steps like instituting an escrow payment system.

“We instituted a $150 monthly fee. If they default, they relinquish their escrow payment. There’s nothing like a threat to lose money to make them come in and pay that fee. It helped us engage them on a monthly basis,” he said.

He said the land bank goes hand-in-hand with city code enforcement and property maintenance, which can be used to direct developers toward desirable development.

Dandoy also said he believes the City of Butler’s land bank will work closely with the city redevelopment authority and code enforcement office.

“It’s essential. That’s really where the process begins,” he said.

Dandoy said discussions will be had between the entities to determine which will best fit a specific property’s needs.

Snippert also said if anyone from the City of Butler or any land bank needs assistance or advice, he is more than happy to help.

The city is expected to vote at its Thursday meeting on whether to establish a land bank.

Related Article: Dandoy: Land bank for the city could steer the future