It's not the end of the county's property auction, but it might be the end of a system that perpetuates blight in the city.
Vanderburgh County Commissioners approved an agreement with Evansville on Tuesday that gives the city the power to cherry-pick properties the county owns because of unpaid property taxes.
The city will take the properties for its recently funded land bank, which is expected to lead to the demolition of 2,000 homes over the next five years.
Previously, when an owner didn't pay three installments of property taxes, the county would collect the taxes at a tax sale.
For the homes which payment wasn't made at tax sale, the county could take over the property and try to unload it at an auction.
As reported by Who Owns That?, the Courier & Press' longterm investigative project into vacant and blighted properties, the county auction gets a blighted property off the county's coffers but only to contribute to the proliferation of blighted homes in Evansville's urban center.
Among the lot of 170 properties at last year's auction: homes with demolition orders, homes with people still living in them and houses destroyed by fire beyond repair.
The Courier & Press found these properties cycle back through the tax sale process because the new owner doesn't pay the taxes since the home is in disrepair. Meanwhile, the homes sit vacant and continue to deteriorate.
The agreement means the city will take a large chunk of the properties that are often the most blighted so they won’t be sold at auction, said Kelley Coures, the city’s director of metropolitan development.
“That way we can stop that recidivism ... to try and stop these repeat properties going into the tax sale process perpetuating blight in our neighborhoods,” Coures said.
The agreement will give the city carte blanche over properties that didn’t sell at tax sale, so long as those properties fall within the city’s “focus area.”
That area is west of U.S. 41, east of St. Joseph Avenue, south of Diamond Avenue and north of the Ohio River, Coures said.
The area also includes a section of the Howell neighborhood south of Barker Avenue.
The city will add the properties to its nonprofit, the Land Bank of Evansville. The land bank, approved last month, will take over blighted, vacant properties and lots and hold them. Most of the properties will be demolished.
The idea is t ofind a development partner to take over the properties to build new housing.
The land bank will cost the city $8 million from now until 2019.
Vanderburgh County Attorney Joe Harrison Jr. said the city will likely take 200 properties a year from the county, but the county auction will continue in some form.
“Those properties, if they’re not purchased at tax sale, will go to the county, and the county will have an auction on the properties. There will just be a smaller number of properties,” Harrison said.
Per the agreement, the city will pay for the county’s cost to acquire the title deed, which could include a title search, mailing costs, publication costs and attorney’s fees.
The City Council will also need to approve the agreement. City Council President Missy Mosby asked commissioners Tuesday night to approve it.