Soon, that ugly, forgotten house across the street could be brought back to life. Last Tuesday, the Birmingham City Council passed a resolution appointing four members to the Birmingham Land Bank Authority.
After narrowing down the field from about 30 applicants, Councilor Valerie Abbott said that selecting the four directors from the field of seven last Tuesday was no walk in the park.
“They were all so good, we could’ve closed our eyes and pointed at names,” Abbott said, as the other council members nodded in agreement.
The four BLBA directors selected by the council are Heager Hill, a retired U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development official; Charles Ball, executive director of Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham; Gwen Bates Calhoun, retired radiologic technologist and president of the Hillman Neighborhood Association; and Adam Snyder, board member for the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority and president of the Friends of Avondale Park.
The BLBA will operate as its own entity, but will receive funding from the city.
According to the state legislation, Code of Alabama-Title 24 Housing- Section 24-9-2, the purpose of such an authority is “Acquiring tax delinquent properties in order to foster the public purpose of rehabilitating land which is in a nonrevenue-generating, nontax-producing status to an effective utilization status in order to provide housing, new industry, new commercial and economic development, other productive uses, jobs for the citizens, assemble parcels of real property for redevelopment, stabilize property values, and remove blight.”
On July 8, the Public Improvement and Beautification Committee called a special meeting to interview the seven finalists and make their selections.
“Transit is a path out of poverty,” Snyder said to the council members during his interview. “I think our city needs accessible neighborhoods. I consider transit as a priority,” he said, adding that transit will create economic opportunities for distressed neighborhoods.
He said that he hopes the board will “hear back from the community,” so that the BLBA can assemble properties to be put back into the tax roll in such a way that will “improve neighborhoods and economic vitality.”
Ball said that blighted properties are one of the factors that draw people away from Birmingham. “It just makes neighborhoods unattractive,” he said. “From a personal standpoint, Birmingham is my home and I just want to bring my city back around.”
Councilor Lashunda Scales, who took the lead during the interview process, said that “This is just too important to mess up,” and that selecting the right group of people for the land bank authority’s board of directors is paramount.
At Tuesday’s Birmingham City Council meeting, Scales touted the caliber of the applicants who were selected, along with those who were not. “Please reapply to boards and agencies [with the city],” she said, speaking to those who were not selected.
Councilor Stephen Hoyt agreed with this notion, saying that, “We should recycle the people we didn’t use.” He went on to say that “the plethora of folks who were all qualified” speaks volumes toward the “intellectual capital in this city.”
The mayor’s office will be selecting three board members to accompany the four who were appointed by the council Tuesday morning.
Mayor Bell is currently in London attending the Farnborough Airshow with several other delegates from Birmingham. Representatives from his office did not mention on Tuesday whether or not they have selected their candidates for the BLBA.