There’s been a lot of interest from other communities in a regional land bank proposed by McCook’s city attorney, Nate Mustion.

Mustion gave an update at a recent city council meeting on July 15 with area communities interested in forming a land bank, the McCook Gazette reported. Communities and villages of all sizes were represented, such as Ogallala, Gothenburg, Beaver City, Oxford, Lexington and North Platte.

But there’s still a lot to be done, he told the council, such as coming up with an interlocal agreement that locks down fees and identifies funds and to re-vamp current nuisance abatement ordinances.

In 2020, the Nebraska Legislature amended the Nebraska Municipal Land Bank Act to allow small Nebraska communities to create land banks. Prior to this, only Lincoln and Omaha were permitted to have land banks.

Under the amended law, regional land banks have the authority to acquire, clean, maintain, and dispose of nuisance property and provides a way to clear title, remove taxes and to 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 proposed the idea to the council earlier in the year and the council was receptive to the idea. Since then, he and Lisa Shifflet, another McCook attorney who works with Mustion, have been gauging interest from other communities.

Nuisance properties, or abandoned or vacant houses, are expensive to demolish, said McCook City Manager Nate Schneider and can be complicated and time-consuming in tracing ownership. Last year, $25,000 was budgeted for nuisance abatement, with one residence at 406 E. First slated for demolition. It will cost $12,000 for the demolition and another $9,000 for asbestos removal and tipping fees at the city dump, he said.

Dilapidated and abandoned properties afflict communities of all sizes, Schneider said.

“We all have the same problem, trying to figure it out,” he said. “Clearing the title is the big issue.”

Schneider said he’d prefer the private sector to buy the properties if possible. But that’s not always doable with unresolved ownership or public liens against the property, which is where a land bank can help.

Regional land banks would be funded with donations from public, private and charitable organizations and by charging each municipality a fee, possibly based on a per capita figure. As the land bank uses pooled resources, a community can decide to forgo using revenue for several years to reserve funds for a property that requires extensive funds to demolish.

Councilman Gene Weedin said he reassured a person who flips houses that the land bank would not be in competition for these homes.

“It’s basically about clearing the title,” Weedin said.

Schneider told the Gazette that in Lincoln, those who rehab houses are usually not interested in houses acquired by land banks due to the extensive deterioration of the property. But if someone is interested in a property, it can be sold to a private developer with the revenue returned to the land bank, he said.

This story first appeared in The McCook Gazette. It was distributed as a member exchange story by The Associated Press.