Land Bank to demolish downtown property

Precious Grundy, The Lima News, Ohio
·2 min read

Aug. 12—LIMA — The Land Bank program recently obtained $500,000 in funding from the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Grant. Allen County Auditor Rachel Gilroy and Allen County Commissioner Cory Noonan met with the City of Lima's Design Review Board on Thursday afternoon to further discuss a demolition in downtown Lima.

The Land Bank program obtained a property located on 138 E. Wayne St. in Lima. The program plans to demolish the building to make room for restoration.

The design review board was created by the City of Lima. According to their ordinance, the goal is to maintain and enhance the distinctive and aesthetic character of buildings, landmarks, and historic areas in downtown Lima.

"It is in a historical part of town that they are interested in redeveloping," said Gilroy. "The board wants to make sure any buildings that are torn down and possibly redeveloped fit within the requirements of the city. The Allen County Land Bank wishes to demolish that building. The floors are missing, it falls through the basement. It has some serious structural issues. There is no revitalization to that property with the building that is there now. We are seeking a demo permit to allow us to use some grant funds to tear that building down."

The demolition was approved by the Design Review Board. Allen County will meet with the City of Lima at a later time to further discuss the property.

"We are going to return it to green space and potentially turn it over to Allen County for future development for other uses of the county," added Gilroy. "We could have the building down in the next 4 weeks. So far we have completed 280 buildings. At this time, we are just getting back into demolition and revitalization work. We are tackling some commercial blight throughout the county. We are excited and seeking to make our communities better. We have completed other commercial properties out of the land bank funds but this would be the first with grant money."

According to Gilroy, the land bank program will be out again later this fall. The goal is to use the grant money before next summer.

For more information visit allencountyohauditor.com/ac-land-bank.