Hartford’s city council on Monday approved a seven-property transfer to the Hartford Land Bank, the first major deal between the city and nonprofit.
After acquiring the city-owned properties — five of which were purchased in a deed sale last year — the Land Bank plans to partner with local developers to renovate the vacant residential real estate.
Land banks are designed to simplify the process of getting property that has been abandoned or seized by a city — for nonpayment of taxes, or other issues — into the hands of responsible, usually nonprofit, owners. Land banks can be established as nonprofits or departments within a municipality, but in either setup the city grants it special powers to acquire property without jumping through the onerous hoops often required.Â
The Hartford Land Bank was officially registered as a nonprofit in 2017 and it’s led by Laura Settlemyer, who became the nonprofit’s inaugural executive director last year, after a three-year stint as Hartford’s director of blight remediation.
Properties Hartford Land Bank is acquiring include:
- 61 Charlotte St.
- 128 Edgewood St.
- 471 Garden St.
- 196 Homestead Ave.
- 78 Martin St.
- 59 Magnolia St.
- 103 Earle St.
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