St. Joseph County, South Bend consider land bank partnership to address vacant properties

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- St. Joseph County and the city of South Bend are weighing a partnership that would allow the city to purchase abandoned properties from tax sales and return them to productive use, a move that could save taxpayer dollars and clean up long-neglected lots.

If approved, the partnership would transfer any property that doesn’t sell at a tax sale to a land bank operated by the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG), which would then be responsible for repurposing the land.

South Bend has grappled with abandoned properties for more than a decade. In 2013, then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg launched a push to address 1,000 vacant or abandoned homes in 1,000 days. Tha