The Genesee County Land Bank (Land Bank), working in partnership with the City of Flint and Genesee County, has secured $39.5 million to demolish up to 1,910 blighted structures.
The funding sources for blight elimination include: $16 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) from the City of Flint, $8 million in ARPA from the County, $10 million in grant funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, $4.5 million from the Land Bank and the Genesee County Treasurer, and $1 million in Community Project Funding through Congressman Kildee’s office.
Over the next four years, the Genesee County Land Bank intends to secure an additional $5.8 million to demolish 505 additional blighted structures to reach our goal of clearing 2,415 blighted structures from Flint and Genesee County.
Michael Freeman, Executive Director of the Land Bank, is pleased that partners are coming together to continue the process of clearing blighted structures impacting residents and neighborhoods throughout Flint and Genesee County. “Clearing blight will help restore value to communities and create healthier and safer neighborhoods.”
The Land Bank used the property selection process described below to prioritize 1,910 structures out of the 2,900 unfunded demolitions to complete with the funding secured so far. The list, now available on the Land Bank’s website, includes 1,690 residential and 35 commercial demolitions in the City of Flint and 183 residential and 2 commercial demolitions outside the city in Genesee County. As additional funds are secured, we will prioritize more vacant and blighted Land Bank structures to demolish.
Pre-demolition work is now underway starting with utility disconnects and environmental surveys to identify hazardous materials and asbestos to remove before demolition. As utility disconnects and surveys are completed, we will use a competitive procurement process following all state, local and federal requirements, and regulations for qualified contractors to demolish batches of structures. The funding will also support maintenance on lots after demolition for up to five years.
The Land Bank encourages licensed contractors and sub-contractors with experience doing demolition related work to contact us at demo@thelandbank.org to learn more about doing work with the Land Bank.
About the Funded Demolition List Property Selection Process
The Land Bank began the process of selecting blighted structures for demolition by collecting property condition information and resident recommendations for demolition through the Flint Property Portal. We collected resident input on criteria that ought to be used to prioritize demolitions through a community survey. Based on more than 400 survey responses, residents asked us to prioritize the blighted houses that are: 1) directly next door to occupied properties; 2) in areas where more people live and where homes are occupied; 3) near open schools; and 4) fire damaged. We used this direction to develop a scoring framework for all demolition candidates in Land Bank’s inventory and the highest scoring properties were selected for demolition with the funding secured so far. Flint City Council helped gather public input and shared their feedback with us before the list was finalized.
Original source can be found here.
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