By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A possible step toward renovating the nearly 5,000 vacant buildings in St. Joseph has passed the Missouri legislature.

The legislature has approved a bill which will allow the creation of the St. Joseph Land Bank.

State Rep. Shelia Solon of St. Joseph sponsors the legislation, House Bill 821, and says it can be used to buy run-down and abandoned properties to be sold to groups or individuals which agree to rehabilitate them.

“It’s a way to hopefully spur economic development, because when you have these vacant properties people don’t feel safe because we have vagrants getting in these homes, committing crimes, and we have fires every other weekend that have been set in these vacant buildings and it makes people feel very unsafe,” Solon tells St. Joseph Post.

St. Joseph has approximately 4,800 abandoned buildings. The city does not know the owners of 500 of them.

Solon says the 500 unclaimed buildings become the responsibility of the city.

“If these properties are dangerous or not mowed and not kept up, the upkeep of them, instead of being on the landowner or the homeowner, it turns to the taxpayers of our town and last year the taxpayers footed the bill for $300,000 for the upkeep of these homes,” according to Solon.

The St. Joseph Land Bank is modeled after similar organizations in Kansas City and St. Louis. The Land Bank can buy abandoned property and re-sale them to individuals or groups which promise to renovate them. If they cannot find a buyer, they can be put to public use.

State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville made changes necessary to get it through the Senate, then the revised version passed the House. This bill was a top legislative priority for the City of St. Joseph and the St. Joseph Area Chamber of Commerce.

The measure now heads to the governor for his signature.