Below is a link to the "60 Minutes" segment on Cleveland's efforts to deal with its staggering number of vacant and abandoned properties. One of the interviewees is former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis who was in Butler County earlier this month meeting with the county's economic development professionals about Land Banking.

We plan to have Mr. Rokakis at the Council meeting on the 17th of January to further discuss landbanking and tools to assist our community in eliminating and reducing blight in the housing area.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57344513/there-goes-theneighborhood/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

In 2010, the Ohio General Assembly passed HB 313 which authorized the formation of County Land Reutilization Corporations (CLRC or “Landbank”) as a means of more efficiently allowing vacant and abandoned properties to be acquired and returned to productive community use. Since that time, northern Ohio, particularly Cuyahoga County, has become a leader in successful land reutilization through land banking. Now Hamilton County is implementing a Land Banking program which will be administered through the Hamilton County Port Authority, and Butler County is exploring the feasibility of creating a central land bank for Butler County.

Butler County has asked if the City of Middletown is interested in participating in a county-wide effort. Information on land banking can be found at:

http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/hc/landBanking.asp or http://www.cuyahogalandbank.org/