KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed legislation in Kansas City Monday afternoon creating a Land Bank to acquire vacant properties. The new bill allows the Kansas City Land Bank to buy, rehabilitate and resell abandoned and blighted properties.
A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found approximately 12,000 vacant properties in Kansas City. Governor Nixon tells FOX 4 the new measures gives Kansas City the power to clear and develop vacant lots for commercial use and most importantly put these properties on the market so they can return to private ownership as new homes, new businesses and new opportunities for this community.
The Land Bank will have the authority to acquire properties that did not sell at public auctions and to buy properties in low-income areas that are offered at tax foreclosure auctions. It will not have the power of eminent domain.