February Land Bank Meeting

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Muskingum County is on a mission to clean up its appearance in order to create an image that better appeals to visitors and businesses looking to relocate.  

Muskingum County Land Reutilization Corporation Executive Director Andy Roberts discussed some of the efforts his agency is making toward improving blighted neighborhoods one property at a time.

“About 95 percent of the properties we end up with come through tax forfeiture. Because of that we do an analysis every year on the people who owe the highest amount of delinquent taxes, what taxing districts are highest impacted by delinquent properties. Because that tells us where we need to go and where we need to be doing our work,” Roberts said.

Alongside the Land Bank’s demolition programs that are geared toward cleaning up abandoned commercial sites, the Muskingum County Commissioners established the Office of Blight Removal in 2025. That agency is aimed more toward the cleanup of occupied residential properties and designed to augment the image of community neighborhoods.

“One of the applications we made was for Welcome Home Ohio,” Roberts said. “It’s a state grant funded program to do some infill housing within different communities. We submitted an application for up to 14 houses. But long and short of it is… it’s a $100,000 dollar subsidy to offset the cost of building new residences in areas that may otherwise not make it, scratch, in the market.”

The Welcome Home Ohio subsidies help to make new home ownership more affordable for lower income families and that the City of Zanesville has changed zoning regulations to better accommodate the placement of new houses between older existing homes.

Roberts also noted that in 2025, $260,000 Dollars of local funding secured $1.9 Million dollars in grant funding and that $50,000 dollars was generated from property sales.