Missouri General Assembly Passes Land Bank Bill

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

The Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corp. announced the Missouri General Assembly passed the legislation which supports the establishment of a land bank in Kansas City.

Julie Porter, Greater Kansas City LISC Executive Director, said, “The passage of this important legislation is a victory for Kansas City residents as we all continue to seek solutions that reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties in the urban core.”

Estimates indicate approximately 12,000 vacant and abandoned properties exist in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The new land bank will help manage, sell and transfer tax delinquent land in order to return the vacant, abandoned or foreclosed properties to productive reuse.

The Kansas City Business Journal reports the city will be able to nominate a board of commissioners to the land bank agency. The board will be authorized to borrow money, issue bonds to finance the purchase, and greenlight the demolition and sale of the vacant properties, but it will not hold power of eminent domain. The properties held by the agency will be exempt from state and local taxes.

The bill received sponsorship support from Rep. Noel Torpey (Republican – District 52) and Rep. Michael Brown (Democrat- District 50) in the House, and Sen. Victor Callahan (Democrat – District 11) in the Missouri Senate.

In other local news, The Kansas City Star reports Missouri highway officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first “diverging diamond” interchange in the Kansas City Area. The new $8.1 million interchange is based on a design pioneered in France and is expected to increase vehicle flow at the busy I-435 and Front Street intersection.

Illustration Courtesy of: www.modot.org