Some of Hamilton’s worst eyesores and nuisance properties have been bulldozed in the past six months with the help of more than $1 million in funding from the County Land Re-utilization Corp.

The city has acquired 110 parcels of land through the program, which targets foreclosed properties or those that have been vacant for some time and have been the source of fires, crime and other neighborhood nuisances.

The money to buy the properties comes from Hamilton’s share of a $2.2 million Moving Ohio Forward grant provided by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The state received $93 million in a federal settlement with the mortgage banks and decided to distribute $75 million of that to Ohio’s 88 counties.

Hamilton and Middletown had to put down $500,000 in matching funds last summer to get a shot at the grant, which was then divided equally between the two cities. The funding can be used to clear properties of titles, special assessments and back taxes, and provides cash for demolition of abandoned structures.

“The program has been very successful to date,” said Kathy Dudley, assistant city law director. “We’ve been able to identify and get rid of some of the worst properties in the city.”

Dudley said the properties the city is going after are those that are under a tax foreclosure for nonpayment of taxes and have not been able to be sold after two sheriff’s sales. Many of the properties acquired so far did not have any structures on them or the structures had previously been taken down, she said.

Dudley said the city already incurs costs on a number of these vacant parcels to have grass and weeds cut periodically. She also estimated that there are 2,000 to 3,000 parcels that are abandoned properties in the city.

The city averaged about a dozen demolitions using federal funding prior to the start of this land banking program last summer.

In a recent report to Hamilton City Council, Sean Pederson of the city Economic Development Department, said the average demolition cost per property was $10,569, and the cost to acquire a vacant lot was about $720.

“We’re spending zero dollars for these acquisitions,” she said.

Dudley said the costs to acquire a property also depends on an environmental review. For example if a property that is acquired by the city has a structure containing asbestos or another potential hazard, that could increase the costs of demolition, she said.

Pederson said city officials are utilizing a number of efforts to obtain the properties.

In addition to identifying properties that will become available through the tax foreclosure process, obtain the properties are they become available through foreclosure, Hamilton police has created a listing of vacant/nuisance properties that identifies possible acquisition sites.

The city has also sent out letters to the owners of the nuisance properties, some of whom often own multiple structures, that explains the property donation process to the city/Land Bank. Letters have also been sent to lending institutions that own property that have been determined to be good candidates to the Land Bank program. Some of those lending institutions include Countrywide; Wells Fargo; US Bank; Bank of America; Deutsche Bank; and TCF National Bank.

The city is also working with asset managers at Wells Fargo and Chaco’s to also determine possible donations to the Land Bank program.

Dudley said the current state funding for the program ends on Dec. 31, but said the Ohio Attorney General’s office would be evaluating the program in June.

Once the parcels have been identified, acquired, and cleaned up, they are offered to adjacent owner/occupied properties who may wish to expand their properties for an addition or expand their yard through the city’s side lot program, she said.

“The city’s policy is to encourage owner/occupied properties to acquire these properties,” she said.

Dudley said sometimes these property owners may accumulated a row of these parcels to market or build a structure. She said some of the properties may be used for future infrastructure projects, such as South Hamilton Crossings, in which the city would not have to pay to obtain these properties for these projects.

“It all helps to revitalize the city,” Dudley said.