t’s a goal for the record books, but the Lucas County Land Bank is ready to set its sights high. At a news conference today, we announced a plan to renovate or demolish 1,500 properties over the next 1,500 days. In other words, every day for the next four years, a property will be fixed up or torn down by the Land Bank. Every single day. This will allow us to remove most of the blighted properties throughout Toledo by the year 2020.

The news conference was held in front of two houses owned by the Land Bank on the 3900 block of Hoiles Avenue in West Toledo: one that must be demolished due to mold damage, and the other that has been renovated by a Land Bank partner and will soon be re-occupied.

More than 400 properties have been renovated through the Land Bank since 2011. That’s important because demolition and renovation are not an either/or. Our neighborhoods need both to be successful.

The announcement follows the recent Hardest Hit Funds award of $13.8 million to the Land Bank, which was a higher award per capita than any other county in Ohio. Lucas County received such a high award in part because it has the lowest demolition costs statewide, paying nearly 25% less than any other county and stretching limited dollars even further for Toledo’s neighborhoods.

The Blade wrote a front-page story about the “1,500 in 1,500” initiative, which you can read by clicking here. The Blade’s lead editorial was also dedicated to the program, and you can read that by clicking here.