Lansing's blighted homes to be demolished

LANSING – The grapple’s metal jaws clenched down on the roof of 1412 N. Chestnut St. and ripped away the wood like a mechanical Tyrannosaurus rex.

In minutes, the back bedroom was laying in a splintered pile in the overgrown backyard.

“I’m kind of happy it’s gone,” said Tim MacKenzie, who watched the demolition of the long-vacant property from the street. “Now I don’t have to worry about riff raff moving in.”

MacKenzie lives across the street and said the home has been in poor condition for at least five years, since the last tenant moved out.

The blighted property met its end Wednesday morning along with a few other homes across Lansing owned by the Ingham County Land Bank.

Demolition crews have been tearing down eyesores in the city for over a month. By next spring, a total of 240 homes will have been torn down and the lots converted to green space thanks to a $6 million blight grant from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The land bank received similar grants in 2008.

“These tax foreclosed properties that end up in the demolition pipeline are the worst of the worst,” said Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing, who also chairs the land bank. “You have to make a decision about whether it’s economical to fix it up or tear it down. When a home gets run down, it’s very expensive to fix up. This is the best option.”

Also, he said, there’s no one to buy them.

“Lansing has lost 15 percent of its population over 40 years,” Schertzing said. “So it needs less homes. It will take a good amount of time for some of these areas to go back to where the demand is greater than the supply.”

MacKenzie, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1978, has seen a few other homes become vacant lots in the past few years. On Tuesday, crews demolished another rental home down the block.

“I’m glad that house is gone. It was nothing but a cat house,” he said. “This neighborhood has always been quiet except for these rental houses.”

Schertzing said the homes the land bank usually receives are run down by bad tenants or abandoned by home owners who couldn’t repair them.

“I haven’t torn down a nice house yet,” said Kevin Ferguson, of S.C. Environmental Services, who was part of the two-man crew that demolished the Chestnut Street home. “Usually these homes are condemned if the city deems them unsafe.”

Two other homes on MacKenzie’s block were destroyed by fires years ago and demolished. Neighbors bought them to expand their tiny yards in the cramped neighborhood.

This is a possible option for some of the homes slated to be torn down this year. Others will be converted into community gardens or kept by the land bank for future redevelopment, Schertzing said.

In the case of 1412 N. Chestnut St., the land bank will keep it as a green space since the property sits near the banks of the Grand River, lying in the floodway of the river.

Ultimately, Schertzing said, the goal of tearing down blighted homes is to make neighborhoods more appealing so they can, in turn, attract more people.

“These aren’t all pocket parks, but people appreciate it,” he said.

The only problem is, when the grant money runs out, it’s uncertain whether another grant will be available.

“When we had the recession, it helped us get local, state and federal resources to deal with this problem,” Schertzing said. “It may not be there in the future.”

Contact Alexander Alusheff at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.