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| Is The Genesee County Land Bank Flint's Worst Slum Lord? |
| Yes, they have bitten off more than they can chew |
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17% |
[ 6 ] |
| No, they are just trying to take over all the property in Flint. |
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26% |
[ 9 ] |
| RECALL DAN KILDEE - Lets Clean Flint Up. |
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55% |
[ 19 ] |
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| Total Votes : 34 |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Breaking News: Local Flint historic activist Leanne Barkus stands in front of a back hoe to stop demolition on this historic home in Flint's Carriage Town Historic Neighborhood. The property owned by the Genesee County Land Bank was recently denied an application to demolish the historic home. Barkus is a current neighborhood resident and former Flint Historic District Commissioner.
The City of Flint continues to destroy the historic district one house at a time. After asking the demolition crew to stop without success, Leanne Barkus decided to step in front of the moving piece of machinery and make them stop. After the demo crew left, Barkus said she has always threatened to do that but never did until now. Local residents applauded her bravery in sticking up for the law. Neighbors were very upset with the Genesee County Land Bank and City of Flint's complete lack of respect for the law and history.
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Fri Dec 07, 2012 2:19 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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David White and Ryan Eashoo reported this story on the Ryan Eashoo Flint Talk radio program.
Brown and Kurtz are busy filling the Historic committee with people that will follow their orders and not follow the law while they kick the ones who know the rules to the curb..
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sat Dec 08, 2012 6:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Fri Dec 07, 2012 2:22 pm |
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Hardwood
F L I N T O I D
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| Because a very old Indian burial site was recently discovered in this part of the neighborhood, the City of Flint is required by law to have an archaeologist present anytime they break ground. |
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Sat Dec 08, 2012 2:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| In my opinion Kurtz and Brown act like sociopaths-they have no conscience and they fear no law. |
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Sat Dec 08, 2012 6:26 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Resident standoff delays demolition prep at house in Flint's historical Carriage Town neighborhood
By Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com
on December 10, 2012 at 5:45 PM, updated December 10, 2012 at 8:21 PM
The Genesee County Land Bank house at 422 W. 1st Ave. is at the heart of a conflict in Flint's Carriage Town neighborhood. The Land Bank wants to see the house demolished, while the Historic District Commission wants it to be rehabilitated.Lauren Justice | MLive.com
FLINT, MI -- Don't trifle with the homes in Leanne Barkus' historic neighborhood.
The Flint resident feels so strongly about properly preserving the city's Carriage Town structures that she's willing to stand in front of a backhoe moving toward the front yard.
On Friday, Barkus blocked a city utility crew's machine as workers were attempting to shut off the water at 422 W. 1st Ave., which was scheduled for demolition.
The crew was called off the site, but the clash over the house continues, as it has for more than a year.
The 1890s Tudor-style home is at the heart of a conflict between the Genesee County Land Bank, which wants to tear it down, and the city's Historic District Commission, which wants it preserved and rehabilitated.
Barkus, who lives a few houses down, heard the machinery Friday morning and leaped into action because she believes the proper procedures were not followed in dealing with the historic district home. She wanted to stop any work from being done before it was too late, she said.
"In terms of the craftsmanship and the quality of the building materials, we can't rebuild these homes," said Barkus, a former historic district commissioner for 12 years who still closely follows the issue. "People look past that and see a house that needs paint and has boards on the windows, and they don't appreciate that this house saw General Motors and its beginnings. It's part of the tangible history of this city."
The vacant house is owned by the Genesee County Land Bank.
The agency originally wanted to demolish the house, but later agreed to rehabilitate it with federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant funds to satisfy the Historic District Commission, said Doug Weiland, executive director of the Land Bank.
After a contractor began preliminary rehabilitation work, a city inspector and structural engineer who examined the house said the foundation and basement walls were not sound, Weiland said.
To get the house up to code would have pushed the total project cost at more than $250,000, the limit set by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority for the project, he said.
The Land Bank decided tearing down the house would be a more cost-effective course of action, he said. The Land Bank took the engineering reports to the Historic District Commission, but the commission denied the request for demolition, he said.
Heather Burnash, a historic district commissioner, said the Land Bank should have solicited additional bids for the structural work to make sure there were no other feasible options for renovating the house, and maintains that the Land Bank should have taken better care of the house from the start.
The houses that the Land Bank owns in the area's historic districts, such as Carriage Town, should receive priority for preservation and rehabilitation, she said.
"Secure them and board them up and tarp them... or don't acquire them," she said. "They know what they're bound by when they choose to take on these houses. Rehab is expensive. Restoring a house the right way is expensive, but they need to do it the right way."
With the house's proximity to the area's Stone Street Native American burial ground, Barkus said she wants to make sure the proper process is followed whenever the ground in the area is disturbed.
She also said Carriage Town has lost 200 structures over the years to demolition, and can't afford to lose any more.
"I don't think the Land Bank has done everything they can do to save this house," she said.
The Land Bank has rehabilitated several homes in the Carriage Town neighborhood, including a home right next door to 422 W. 1st Ave., using federal funds.
Barkus said the Land Bank work on those homes was "amazing," but this house should also be preserved.
Weiland said the house in question is old, but that doesn't necessarily make it a historic home. It resides in a designated historic district, but he said it's in "horrible condition
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"It's not like Billy Durant lived there," he said. "This is a dump that at some point was converted to a two-unit rental."
The Land Bank appealed the commission's decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which approved demolition.
Jason Lorenz, Flint public information officer, said proper procedures were followed in terms of city ordinances.
"The house was deemed not a good use of funds to try to restore it," he said.
After the Historic District Commission said the Land Bank had to receive permission from the State Historic Preservation Office, Weiland said the Land Bank spoke with the state office, who advised them to first exhaust all local remedies.
"The board of appeals was a local remedy," Weiland said.
The Land Bank then hired the city of Flint's utility crew to cut off the water at the house in preparation for the demolition, leading to Friday's standoff, he said.
"At this point, we told them to stand down until we deal with this with the city attorney," Weiland said.
The house next door was recently purchased by Chad Schlosser, who moved in about a month ago. He said he witnessed the confrontation Friday between Barkus and the city utility workers.
"They obviously were having an altercation and then she was on the phone," he said. "Then they eventually left and we were like, 'Wow, she actually stopped them.'"
Schlosser said the house is an eyesore and he doesn't mind whether it's torn down or renovated -- as long as something happens with it.
"What I really don't want is for the conflict to lead to nothing happening," he said. "I'm fine with either direction they go in."
Weiland said the Land Bank plans to meet with the Flint city attorney's office next week to discuss how to proceed. The Land Bank still intends to demolish the house, he said.
"Our attorney and the city attorney will be meeting to discuss the ordinance," he said. "They (the Historic District Commission) are saying proper procedure wasn't followed and we don't think that is correct."
Burnash said she hopes this incident leads to better communication among all parties involved, "so we're all on the same page moving forward," she said.
"This is an opportunity to work together for all the agencies to shine," she said. |
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Mon Dec 10, 2012 11:20 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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| Apparently you can try and buy a house from the Genesee County Land Bank if you have bad credit on a land contract. |
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Adam
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Mysearchisover.com
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Mon Apr 29, 2013 11:10 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| But even then you have to be connected somehow. |
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Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:58 am |
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00SL2
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
But even then you have to be connected somehow.
Don't know what required "connections" you're speaking of, but I know of an individual living in property formerly owned by parents that was forfeited for non-payment of taxes, who entered into land contract with land bank. |
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Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Genesee County's land bank needs to be challenged.
This group can be found on Facebook:
Kent County Taxpayers Alliance
KCTA is a non partisan collection of concerned citizens who have been active in local politics to improve transparency and accountability. Our experiences unfortunately lead us to agree with this statement made by Judge Collete:
"The truth is with transparency, government spends most of its time trying not to be transparent."
Collette noted that under the state's open records laws, a public body is not required to create records but only to provide existing records. Unless it already exists, a database, for example, is not required to be assembled.
"Some people seem to think [Freedom of Information Act compliance] requires an organization to amass data for you," he said. "That's not the way it works. So if an organization is able to artfully manipulate the way it retains data, they can make it very hard for you to obtain the info that you want."
Read the full article here: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/steve_miller_is_government_tra.html#incart_river
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Check out our website to see things we have done to bring more transparency to local governments throughout Kent County.
Kent County Taxpayers Alliance »
www.kentcountytaxpayers.org
In response to criticism from the Kent County Taxpayers Alliance (KCTA) and a lawsuit by a group of local real estate professionals, the Kent County Commission last week approved some changes to how the Kent County Land Bank operates.. |
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Thu May 02, 2013 5:35 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:30 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| I can't believe some areas will only be mowed in October. Only one round of mowing per area! Adam is this some kind of joke? |
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Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:52 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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PERHAPS THE LAND BANK SHOULD SELL SOME OF THIS LAND!
FLINT (WJRT) -
(06/19/13) - Imagine what your yard would look like if you only mowed the grass once a year. That's what the Genesee County land bank's properties will look like this summer.
The Genesee County Land Bank owns about 40 percent of all the abandoned homes in Flint, and this year they can only afford to mow the lawns once.
"We know that's not adequate, but that's about the best we can do with the resources we have," says Land Bank executive director, Doug Weiland. "The scale of this problem is huge. In the city of Flint alone, we have over 20,000 abandoned properties."
Weiland says the Land Bank plans to spend about $1.2 million, county-wide, on mowing and maintenance.
Fred Youngblood, of Flint, isn't waiting on the city's help. He says he's been mowing lawns around his neighborhood for about four years.
"We kept getting all this rain. It seemed the more you look at it, it would get a foot higher day by day," he says. "So I decided I should just get on out here and get some of it cut down."
He says people need to take pride in their neighborhoods, whether the problem is their house or not.
"There aren't that many houses over here, but we can all come together and make it look kind of perfect around here |
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Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:58 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Fire sale in Gary, Indiana: Homes for $1
The city of Gary, Ind., is running a real estate fire sale: A dozen homes for $1 each.
The catch: "They need work," said Gary's mayor, Karen Freeman-Wilson. "It's up to the homeowners to provide the sweat equity."
The city bought the homes at county tax sales after owners fell behind on property taxes, and the sale is part of a neighborhood stabilization effort underway in the University Park section.
The program was announced in June and quickly drew interest from more than 400 potential buyers.
Few of them, however, met all the minimum requirements: Buyers must have lived in Gary for at least six months; have $1,000 in savings; earn at least 80% of the median annual income of $35,250 in the area; and demonstrate that they have the financial ability to rehabilitate the home.
The program is open only to those who do not currently own a home, and they must occupy the house for five years before they assume full ownership. If they leave before that, they forfeit everything.
Those restrictions reduced the number of finalists to 25. In September, 12 will be chosen by random drawing, and each will get a home.
Eventually, if the program works well, Freeman-Wilson would like to sell 50 homes a year.
The neighborhood stabilization initiative also includes financial assistance for current homeowners whose houses need repairs, and selling several houses the city has already fixed up for just under $60,000 each.
The plan, according to Arlene Colvin, head of the city's Department of Community Development, is to halt a gradual decline in the neighborhood.
Related: The best place to buy foreclosures
Freeman-Wilson, 52, hopes that buyers will have the same kind of experience she had more than 20 years ago, when she bought her first house in Gary for a dollar under a U.S. Housing and Urban Development program.
As a deputy prosecutor, not long out of Harvard Law School, she spent $15,000 to $20,000 to renovate her two bedroom house.
By keeping her housing costs low, she was able to free up time to take advantage of opportunities that eventually landed her in the mayor's office.
"I was able to go out on my own and forge a life in the community," she said. "That participation made me more committed to Gary."
There are a lot of blighted areas in Gary, which has gone through decades of decline since its decades as a manufacturing heavyweight. The city was founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation and named for the company's chairman, Elbert Henry Gary. Gary's population has plummeted by more than half since 1960.
Housing markets where cash is king
Felicia Goodman, born and raised in Gary, is one of the finalists. The customer service rep for Southwest Airlines currently lives in an apartment about 20 minutes from University Park.
If Goodman wins the draw, she'll pay contractors to do the plumbing, electricity and other serious repairs while she and a brother do some of the cosmetic work, like painting and finishing.
She's very excited about the opportunity. "I love it over there," she said. "It's beautiful and there are some very nice houses in the neighborhood." |
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Adam
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Mysearchisover.com
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Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:39 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:42 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Land Bank is having a "fire sale" of sorts on the houses they have spent $80,000 plus on remodeling. They have reduced the price on some that have been vandalized. They are also promoting the 30% off for emergency and hospital employees as well as police and fire that qualify.
They haven't sold the houses they spent $170,000 on remodeling. |
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Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:25 pm |
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