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Senate Bill 356 |
Senate Author: Ellis |
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Effective: 9-1-05 |
House Sponsor: Thompson |
Senate Bill 356 amends the Local Government Code to add the Urban Land Bank Program Act for a Municipality with a Population of 1.9 Million or More. The bill authorizes a home-rule municipality with a population of at least 1.9 million to adopt an urban land bank program, which allows the private sale of tax-foreclosed property to a municipally created land bank for the purpose of affordable housing development. A municipality adopting a program must establish or approve a land bank to acquire, hold, and transfer real property, and it must adopt an annual plan, subject to a public hearing, for the program’s operation. The bill allows an officer charged with selling property foreclosed on a tax lien to sell a property directly to the land bank if certain conditions are met, and it requires the land bank to resell the property for construction of affordable housing within five years of taking ownership. The bill establishes eligibility criteria for qualified participating developers and conditions the number of properties a developer may acquire from the land bank on the extent of the developer’s recent housing production experience. The developer must apply for a building permit, and construction financing must be in place within 24 months of acquiring the property, or the property reverts to the land bank. The bill requires that each property sold by the land bank be deed restricted for the development of affordable housing, and it specifies various limits on the household income of homebuyers and renters of housing developed under the program based on the area median family income as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the area in which the property is located. The bill gives the right of first refusal on the purchase of the property to eligible adjacent property owners and the right of second refusal to a nonprofit community housing development organization that provides housing within the same area as the land bank’s properties. If no adjacent property owner or qualified organization exercises that right within a specified period after the date the property is deeded to the land bank, the property may be sold to another qualified developer. The bill requires the land bank to comply with open meetings and open records requirements for governmental bodies and to meet certain record-keeping and reporting requirements.