By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG -- As Ogdensburg continues its fight to reduce "zombie properties" and blight throughout the city, officials are hopeful the newly established land bank can help turn the tide.

These vacant and deteriorating properties are often targeted by out-of-area landlords and are susceptible to falling into a cycle of vacancy. This keeps the properties in disrepair.

Ogdensburg Land Bank Development Corporation is seeking $1.8 million to fight this problem.

The land bank will work to acquire titles to currently city-owned surplus properties, eliminate liabilities and transfer properties to new buyers.

Land banks are public authorities that take over properties and secure funding to develop, rehabilitate or perform preventative maintenance to keep the properties from deteriorating.

As a new land bank, funding will be used to contract with the Development Authority of the North Country to provide mapping assistance.

Some of the funding will also be used to hire a part-time director in the future. The land bank will be directed by a seven-member board.

According to the announcement, the land bank will assist in the city's “zombie property” initiative to reduce blight in the city.

Since land banks were first allowed by law in New York in 2012, 1,989 properties have been acquired for banks throughout the state. Of those, 651 have been sold to private individuals or non-profit partners.

An additional 482 of those properties have been demolished and 4,000 have been renovated or stabilized by the land banks with most resulting in homeownership opportunities or quality workforce rental housing.