Cedar Rapids pursuing pilot program to redevelop vacant properties

CEDAR RAPIDS — The city of Cedar Rapids is planning to launch a pilot program this year to help redevelop vacant, blighted properties that have been a problematic eyesore in neighborhoods in all four city quadrants.

City staff are working with Linn County staff to create a program, slated to start this summer or fall, that would allow the city to take ownership of these empty, long-abandoned properties to redevelop for purposes including affordable housing.

City Planner Jeff Wozencraft told the Cedar Rapids City Council’s Development Committee last week that there are about 60 known properties that would be prime targets for such a program. These are plots where Linn County holds the tax certificates and that have redevelopment potential, or a select few that have errors in platting.

The program would not take aim at owner-occupied properties, he said.

City and county officials are exploring the possibility of using delinquent tax provisions in Iowa Code that allows governments to be priority bidders in a tax sale. That would require an enabling ordinance with Linn County, Wozencraft said, so staff have been in talks with the county treasurer’s office.

Through this mechanism, Wozencraft said the city could address Linn County-held tax certificate properties — those that have not sold in two consecutive tax sales and are now held by the county.

“In a sense, Linn County has some ownership of those properties and they become a little easier for us to address in terms of taking title or assigning that responsibility to another entity,” Wozencraft said.

Over the spring and summer, Wozencraft said city staff plan to continue work with the Linn County treasurer’s office to develop and review terms using the delinquent tax as a mode to address these properties. Later this summer, staff would review the new program with the City Council to move forward and pilot the effort in summer or fall.

There’s been coordination between several city departments including Building Services, Community Development, Public Works, Finance and SafeCR nuisance enforcement. City officials also want to partner with local developers and housing nonprofits to resolve the problems stemming from these vacant properties and create affordable housing, Wozencraft said.

According to the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit dedicated to comprehensively tackling vacant properties, these properties:

Locally, Wozencraft gave two examples of such properties in the city and showed photos but did not identify their addresses. One has been vacant since the 2008 flood, has approximately $15,000 in city liens and has 26 code cases since 2013. Another has 32 code cases since 2013 and about $13,000 in city liens. Both each have five criminal complaints in the last two years.

Council member Ashley Vanorny said some residents end up with liens because they’re unlucky, and it’s hard to get out of that once a person is in that position.

“I am very interested in this conversation because certainly there are physical properties that exist that aren’t being fully utilized,” Vanorny said. “I want to make sure that we’re not kicking people down on their luck.”

On city social media posts about nuisance properties and SafeCR, Vanorny said citizens often comment they got targeted with a nuisance enforcement issue for having some overgrown weeds, for example. Vanorny said these citizens generally mean well and are doing the best they can to keep up with their properties.

“They’re talking about how, ‘I hear you, the chipped paint on my house looks terrible, understand that that’s probably violating a city code. Also not my biggest problem,’” Vanorny said.

Vanorny said it’ll be key that the city has clear communication with residents so that those well-intentioned residents who are concerned about nuisance enforcement don’t think their properties would be affected.

Wozencraft assured that only truly vacant, abandoned properties would be targeted in this program — those with absentee owners city staff can’t find because they may be dead or otherwise unable to be found.

“The properties that we’re talking about are not ones where we’ve had any contact with the property owner in the near-recent past,” Wozencraft said. “These are ones that have been truly left behind that we’re struggling to find ways to properly address and support neighbors. We don’t want to, as you said, kick people while they’re down and out.”

Not all of these properties have a bank investment, Wozencraft said. Those that do would go through the foreclosure and auction process.

“These have fallen through the cracks of a lot of different systems and they’re sort of left hanging,” Wozencraft said.

Some of these properties may already have been placarded, Wozencraft said, but for further enforcement the city has to work within the court system to get an assigned intent to demolish as these properties are not under city ownership. That process typically takes a considerable amount of time, he said.

Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said when the city is able to demolish a property, that cost is assessed to the property owner but the city still doesn’t own it. Under this effort, the city would take ownership.

“This has been an issue that the city’s been looking at for a number of years,” Pratt said.

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