TIFTON — Tifton and Tift County are joining together to find a solution to tackling abandoned and destitute properties in the Tiftarea.
The governing bodies of the city and county came together for a special meeting May 30 to consider jointly forming a land bank to handle properties that had been abandoned, or are in disrepair, to repurpose them into assets for the community.
Government representatives of Ty Ty and Omega did not attend though residents from those communities participated.
County and city officials requested the insight of Odetta MacLeish-White and Sara Toering, respectively the director of Georgia Initiatives for Community Progress and a senior fellow for the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit that works to help strengthen communities through finding new uses for vacant or abandoned properties.
MacLeish-White reported experience in affordable housing and equitable transit-oriented development, while Toering assured she is extremely familiar with land banking, with her mentor being with the Georgia Land Bank Act, which is how the city and county would create a land bank if approved.
They said a land bank would be a public authority or nonprofit, independent from the city and county governments and headed by a board of five to 11 people, who would be able to acquire properties through donation, local government transfer or market acquisition.
A land bank would be able to extinguish delinquent taxes, hold properties tax-exempt and return properties to a productive use.
Toering assured city and county officials that the entity would be flexible and adaptable, able to conform to whatever the Tiftarea would want it to be, but stressed its ability to repurpose properties would hinge upon its ability to work with community partners that could properly utilize the spaces and structures the bank could acquire.
MacLeish-White said properties acquired by the bank could be reformatted for a variety of uses, including stormwater infrastructure and affordable housing.
Tift County Commission Chairman Tony McBrayer asked if the properties could be repurposed for commercial use, which Toering said is a possible use, provided the bank has the proper resources and appropriate land.
Rob Wilmot, city attorney, asked what would need to be done to get the bank off the ground and if the founding members would need to fund the project to get started.
Toering said land bank members would need to provide funding to start the bank, but that the bank, as it would be a government entity, could earn grants and fund property purchases through special purpose local option sales tax and American Rescue Plan funding.
Mayor Julie Smith inquired what avenues they had to gather more information if they aren’t comfortable making a decision yet. Toering and MacLeish-White said the Center for Community Progress website had several resources on forming a land bank and suggested the two governments could look into a monthly call held by the Georgia Land Bank Association.
Both parties expressed interest in moving ahead with the initiative, but concerns still arose over what to do if one party backed out or is unwilling to move ahead.
Toering said at least one city and the county’s approval are required to form a land bank. From there, the parties would need to appoint a board and define the entity’s policies, including how they could acquire property and what property they could acquire or abandon.
However, while she confirmed that another city government, such as Ty Ty or Omega, could fill in on the deal if Tifton decided it isn’t interested in the project, the county’s consent is required.
Worried about what accountability this new entity would have, local resident Julie Lester expressed concern over whether the land bank would serve the community and its residents rather than the commercial spheres of the city and county.
Lester said she doubts the properties acquired by the land bank would be adequately maintained, if a land bank would be a fitting solution for the problems currently facing the Tiftarea, or even if the city and county could properly collaborate on the project, citing the local option sales tax negotiations of the previous year as an example.
Smith said while the city and county would face challenges forming the new program, she is confident the two parties could come together to push past any problems they would face and put the initiative to work solving the area’s property problems.
While the mayor said she is confident there are properties in the city and most likely in unincorporated areas outside city limits that a land bank could capitalize on, she believes taking the process one step at a time is wiser, and suggested working on a framework to start things off.
She recommended the city and county conduct research and meetings independently, then reconvene in approximately 45 days to compare findings and discuss the next course of action; members of the Tift County Commission agreed.