Highland County land bank board moves forward with demolition grant match requirement, brownfield grant applications

Members of the Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation took decisive steps toward their state grant applications during their Friday, Nov. 14 meeting, as the board elected to  require a percentage match for the Building Demolition & Site Revitalization Grant Program and chose five properties for the Brownfield Remediation Grant Program. 

For the leftover $131,400 for demolitions from the 2024-25 iteration of the Building Demolition & Site Revitalization Grant Program, plus the current $230,000 in funding for fiscal year 2026, land bank administrator Jason Johansen reported that their list of properties has increased from 15 in October to 22 in November, plus a 23rd property pending probate. 

The lone Salem Township property from the initial 15-property list has been removed. The current 23-property list now includes parcels in Liberty (eight), Fairfield (four), Paint (seven), Whiteoak (two), Hamer (one) and Marshall (one) townships. The board voted to authorize Johansen to submit the application for the current potential properties to the state ahead of the Nov. 19 deadline.

Johansen and members of the board also continued ongoing discussions on “potential match requirements” for future grant-funded projects, following similar conversations in July, August and October, before the board took official action. 

Johansen presented three proposals for the board to review for the BDSR grant program.

“The first proposal would be to take the amount we go over on the set-aside, and we would divide it by the total number of properties, and that would give you your average number,” he said. “Each property owner would pay the same amount across the board, whether you have a $2,000 demo or $20,000, so no cost to the property owner unless we go over the set-aside. 

“The second proposal I like a little bit better. It would be to take the amount we go over on the set-aside and put it into a formula, where the property owner would pay a certain percentage of the demolition that would depend on the total cost toward their property. If you have a $5,000 demo, you're going to pay half the cost of what it would be if someone had a $10,000 demo, so it's based on what what your cost was on your property.”

A third option would be a 25-percent match commitment across the board, with a maximum cost of $2,500 per project, Johansen said, or to have a lien placed on the property.

Board member David Daniels said he was in favor of the third option.

“That, in some ways I think, satisfies the idea that that we're going to get a little something back, or recoup a little bit of our cost here, whether 25 percent is the right number or not,” Daniels said. “I like the idea having a cap so that it's not doesn't grow too much or doesn't get out of hand, but also, on the same token, it provides that opportunity. 

“That would appear to me to be the easiest option to administer and provide the greatest flexibility for the people that are taking advantage of the program.”

Board member Lauren Walker disagreed, saying she was “not in favor” of a match requirement.

“If there is anybody that can't come up with that money, I just don't think it's right for us to put a lien on their property when these grant funds are there to use, so I have a little bit of an issue with that one,” Walker said. “I kind of like the second [option], where it was split out evenly.

“I would just hate for somebody to lose out the opportunity on the demolition when the ultimate reason we're doing this is to clean up blight.”

Johansen agreed but said he also believes “the land bank needs some other funding avenues to keep us sustainable.” Daniels added that the land bank is “eating into fewer and fewer dollars to work with,” and board president Terry Britton said their bank balance is “slowly working its way down” from its $400,000 balance in the past.

Walker suggested that they could go ahead and try the match requirement but revisit the issue if things don’t “work out” with that new policy.

“If anybody does not agree with it and drops out, maybe let's report that back to the board of how many people there are that's not willing to do the $2,500 or the lien, so we can look at next round of funding and maybe adjust it,” Walker said.

After the discussion, the board voted in favor of the 25-percent match with a $2,500 cap. 

Johansen said he would talk to the land bank’s legal counsel Todd Book to discuss how to set this up in the future.

“We might have to bring [the property owners] in on the contract with the contractor, because now that they have a financial commitment in these projects, I feel like perhaps they might be able to be in on that contract,” Johansen said.

Also at the November meeting, environmental consultant Matt Wagner of TetraTech gave an update on the active Brownfield Remediation Grant projects and made recommendations for the 2026 grant.

Wagner said that “further delineation” was needed on the site of a former machine shop in Greenfield, and its owner, who also owns “an armory across the street,” hired TetraTech “privately to do that work.

“I'm pleased to say that the work that we did showed that the building was safe for occupancy,” Wagner said. “However, you cannot go after cleanup funds until you are fully delineated on a site, and so therefore that site, the 204 East Jefferson Street cannot be moved to cleanup this round because there's still additional assessment work that needs to happen on the armory.”

Once that work is complete, however, Wagner said it could potentially qualify for another brownfield grant in the future.

A former gas station on East Main Street is facing a “very similar situation,” Wagner said, as it will require further delineation as well before any additional steps can be taken. No official agreement has been reached with the property owner and neighboring properties at this time.

Work at the site of the former Rocky Fork Truck Stop, which has been funded during the past two state brownfield grant cycles, is going “really well” with groundwater remediation injections complete and confirmation sampling planned for January, Wagner said.

“If that all comes back clean, then it's just going to be doing the paperwork to finish the project, so very pleased to share those results,” Wagner said. “We did do a lot of additional work off site as well, just to further show delineation, which is the big step there.”

With the application deadline for Highland County’s $1 million set-aside grant slated for Dec. 5, Wagner listed various options for their application. A former gas station at South Beach Park on Spruance Road at Rocky Fork Lake, which the land bank owns, was identified as the “number-one” priority, Wagner said.

“We've got that estimated at around $150,000, which includes the admin money for the land bank to do that work,” Wagner said. “It's assessment work out there. 

“We don't think we would need additional funds over that. I know it's a lot of money, but it's also just to cover, make sure that if we do find something, we can delineate it and have a clear understanding of true costs associated with what it would be.”

The second-highest ranked project in terms of priority is the former Bell’s Foundry/Emerson Electric in Hillsboro, for which the HCLRC previously submitted an application for the 2025 grant program.

“We want to make sure that we get all of the foundation and get all of the asphalt and get all of the extra things out of there, besides simply the lead that's in the soil,” Wagner said. “We came up with a total number for that one at $386,000 for that particular project. 

“That puts those two projects there at roughly half of the million dollars, just to kind of give you an idea.”

Assuming the aforementioned Hillsboro gas station property owner gets the delineation complete, it could also be put into the 2026 grant program, which would put their total at about $1 million, Wagner said. 

The other possibilities on the list were a former gas station in Belfast and a former gas station in Greenfield. However, Wagner clarified that those sites qualify for funding because the state determined the property owners “do not have the financial wherewithal to do this” cleanup on their own, in case the land bank board was considering implementing a match requirement.

After an extended discussion, the board voted to apply for all five projects, with no match requirements for the property owners.

Regarding a different grant opportunity, the U.S. EPA community-wide assessment grant through the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission, Johansen said he hoped to have more information and guidelines at the board’s December meeting. The official guidance was delayed due to the government shutdown, Johansen said.

In other discussion:

• Johansen announced that any expedited foreclosures will have to be done using Book, not the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office as they have done for past foreclosures. The prosecutor’s office will also not be involved with the purchase of any tax lien certificates, Johansen said.

“Could you tell me why that is?” Daniels asked. 

“Basically, we met with Anneka [Collins, Highland County Prosecutor] last Monday, and she just said she's not doing them, period,” Britton said.

“The county prosecutor’s refusing to do the work?” Daniels asked.

“Yes,” Britton said.

Daniels also referred to the county "providing additional legal counsel" for the prosecutor's office in 2019, although Johansen said he wasn't sure if that was specifically for foreclosures. 

“She said she would still do her traditional foreclosures, but if we were going to be doing our own process, then we need to use our own legal counsel,” Johansen said. “She did recommend having Todd just do an expedited foreclosure and not do the tax lien certificate sales. She's not a fan of that process. We did speak to Todd a little bit about that, and he didn't see an issue with that. 

“I think he thought the tax lien certificate was better, that she would have more acceptance to that process, but she seems to not. I'm not sure if maybe they'll do one more traditional foreclosure in place of our expedited foreclosure, but there'll be no properties coming to the land bank from that department.”

Johansen added that Book and any other interested attorneys can assist with the foreclosures and tax lien certificates in the future.

• For an update on various properties on the land bank’s agenda, Johansen reported that the land bank is close to acquiring a property on Main Street in Highland, which was previously reported to have a $186,000 unreleased mortgage, via donation.

“The previous owner told me Wednesday that he had sent all the documents back,” Johansen said. “We should receive them today or Monday, and then I will provide the all that documentation to the bank, and that's when they will then release the mortgage. They don't want to release it before the land bank is the owner. 

“The structure is not salvageable. We'll be putting it in the demolition program.”

Johansen told the board that in talking with the village of Highland and doing further investigation, it was determined that the village is owed close to $8,000 from the property, including a sewer assessment and related penalty interest, plus a utility assessment. 

“My recommendation would be maybe to offer the $1,800 for when the sewer was installed, which was never paid, and then ask for them to wipe the delinquent part of it,” Johansen said. “We had taken a donation at Rocky Fork Lake, and that's how we did it there. We paid for the sewer installation that was never paid, and then a 2014 upgrade, but we did not pay the actual usage from the previous owners.”

The board voted to accept Johansen’s recommendation and to pay the $1,800 installation fee.    

The land bank is also making progress on a property at 10635 North Shore Road, which was previously donated to the land bank but led to some issues with access to an abandoned trailer  on the property with two owners.

“At the last meeting, I was thinking we were going to have to use Todd and go through court, but the two partial owners of that mobile home were willing to work with us,” Johansen said. “They signed that mobile home over to us, and I have put it into our demolition program. The demolition of the mobile home is only going to be about five to 10 percent of the work. Most of it's going to be brush clearing.”

At their October meeting, the board discussed the possibility of reaching out to the village of Greenfield for options on selling a .1653-acre property at 222 McClain Avenue in Greenfield, which was acquired by the land bank from Fannie Mae in 2024. The land bank had listed the property for $20,000 with little interest and asked Johansen to look into the village of Greenfield would want to either purchase the property or list it with an adjoining vacant lot that Greenfield’s Community Improvement Corporation was acquiring.

Johansen told the board that the village did not receive any bids on their vacant lot with a minimum listing price of $12,750.

“They will be putting the property back up for bid in December at a reduced minimum of $8,925,” Johansen said. “The adjacent neighbor on the other side of our property has informed the village of his interest in their lot as well. We could wait to see who acquires that property and reach out to them if they're interested in purchasing ours. It could be an opportunity for someone to build two structures. If the adjacent neighbor acquires the CIC’s lot, we are in the middle, so that would possibly make our lot valuable.

“I am curious to see what that lot sells for through their sealed bid process, and I think that will probably give us a rough estimate of what our lot is going to sell for. They’re identical lots.”

The board agreed with Johansen’s recommendation to “wait and see” for now, with another potential update in December.

Johansen said that Leesburg’s village solicitor, Hannah Bivens, was able to clear up confusion regarding two parcels in Leesburg that had nuisance complaints in Hillsboro Municipal Court, as there was a question of whether the HCLRC would be the receiver of the properties. According to Johansen, Bivens verified that the HCLRC will be the receiver of 21 South Fairfield Street, and will be able to pursue demolition grant funding for it, but not the receiver of 125-1/2 West Main Street.

“The village will be taking care of that property,” Johansen said. “That's where the confusion was. For the better part of a year, they thought we were receivers of that. The court was not made aware of that, so the villages are the receivers of that property, and that's just a small little mobile home that they shouldn't have too much cost in removing.” 

• Johansen reviewed recent guidance from the Ohio Departments of Development and Commerce, along with the Ohio Land Bank Association, regarding prevailing wage requirements for grant-funded projects.

“In the past, the grant award amount has defined whether you use prevailing wage or not, and $75,000 is the threshold,” Johansen said. “We have always had a grant agreement with ODOD well over that amount. Now the state is saying that you can break it down by individual projects, so unless we have a specific project that goes over $75,000, which we have not had before except on the brownfield side, it would not be required for the contractors to use prevailing wage. 

“After speaking with Todd, he did say to bring it to the board because the board still has the ability to require prevailing wage if they so choose.”

Daniels made a motion not to pay prevailing wage on projects under $75,000, which was approved.

• Johansen sought, and received, permission from the board to “accept the lowest and best proposal based off of our preapproved contractors” for asbestos inspection work during the five-week period between land bank board meetings.

“If we get a lower proposal from a non-preapproved contractor, we could either call a special meeting, or you can give me authority to vet those contract or that contractor and move forward with using them,” Johansen said. “I only say that because ODOD is really wanting to move lot quicker on these demolitions. I mean, all work has to be done by July 1 of this coming year.”

Britton asked what a “normal dollar amount” per asbestos survey was, and Johansen said they are usually in the $400-$500 range for each project.

“We spent $16,400 on asbestos surveys last round, and those expenses are retroactive, so of course, they're covered, even though we don't have our grant agreement yet,” Johansen said. “I think ODOD is going to move pretty quick on getting us those grant agreements, just based off the the time frame they have for completion.”

• The board approved the October financial report as presented. Johansen reported a beginning balance of $284,556.77 and an ending balance of $210,268.11. Also approved, in a separate motion, was the payment of unpaid bills, which total $49,088.94 and include legal fees, contractor payments, rent and reimbursements to Johansen for travel.

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