PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: A land bank is a governmental or nonprofit entity that acquires and manages tax foreclosed, blighted and abandoned properties with the goal of returning them to productive reuse. The law allows any county, city or borough with a population of 10,000 or more to establish a land bank. Smaller towns can form them, too, if they team up.
Pennsylvania has about 300,000 vacant and abandoned properties, according to an estimate from the office of state Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, who championed the law. Of these properties, about 35,000 are in Philadelphia and 19,000 are in Pittsburgh, according to a summary of the bill…
Here’s how it would work: For properties that are delinquent at least two years, prior taxes would go to tax sale. There are about 500 parcels, countywide, in this category, Mr. Kopas said. The land bank can purchase these properties at any stage of the tax sale process, with the goal of redeveloping them… (more)
