The Shelby County Land Bank could become the Shelby County Real Estate Department with a much-delayed final vote Monday, March 18, on the ordinance restructuring how the county sells tax-delinquent land.

The path of the proposal by commissioner Britney Thornton could also prompt some rule changes by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners as it continues to struggle with long agendas and longer meetings even when the agenda is short on controversial items.

New county real estate department vote delayed

The changes in the sales of tax-delinquent properties were an early goal of Thornton shortly after taking office in late 2022.

She has also bought numerous parcels of tax-delinquent property.

And she has talked of her experience as the ordinance has taken shape.

At times, Thornton has delayed votes to iron out details and answer questions, all while working with County Public Works director Cliff Norville.

The Land Bank is part of the public works division.

Shelby County Commission moves closer to replacing land bank

At other times, Thornton has substituted a later version with numerous changes.

It’s happened enough that several commissioners questioned Thornton closely at the Feb. 26 meeting, where it was once again up for a final vote and delayed again.

“This was given to me today,” Commissioner Henri Brooks said before seeking assurances there would be no further changes to come. “I got it in the middle of this meeting,” said Commission Chairwoman Miska Clay Bibbs.

But Thornton said she circulated the rewrite in committee sessions the week before with Norville. It was a committee session where she was the only commissioner present.

“I have been a committee of one repeatedly,” she said. “It’s pointless for us to go back and forth for me to be the only person present.”

Shelby County Commission approves three-month moratorium on Land Bank sales

But Norville also found some new changes and new concerns about how a more active real estate department would be staffed and funded if it will be watching to see that those buying the property follow through with development plans.

“I don’t want to be a thorn in people’s side,” he said. “But there are things in here as I am scanning … that I am confused by and might need clarity.”

Thornton wound up amending the ordinance further at the February meeting by making the reduced $50 fee nonrefundable if a bidder isn’t selected to buy the property. She had first proposed a refundable $35 fee. The fee is currently $70 and is nonrefundable.

Thornton says she wants those in neighborhoods where the properties are located to be able to have a chance to buy the properties. All buyers would have to have plans for what they plan to do with the property so it doesn’t sit vacant.

Norville said a lower fee that is refundable if the bidder isn’t successful in getting the property is at odds with requiring something to be built on the land.

“This is hinting that (with) every piece of property we sell, you are going to have to build something on it,” Norville said. “If all the people are going to have to build a building on a vacant lot, why are we quibbling about a $50 nonrefundable fee?”

County Commission OKs raises for DA’s office, eliminating pay disparity

Thornton also wants no exceptions for nonprofit organizations buying the land by enforcing a new requirement that puts a time limit on following through with plans for how the land is used.

“It’s very clear we have not held our nonprofits to any standard,” she said. “If they are not activating it, we have to live alongside it. … It’s actually creating a lack of investment.”

Commissioner Shante Avant said nonprofits don’t have the same capacity to develop as private entities do.

“What I don’t want us to do in being so restrictive is that we are preventing nonprofits from being able to use the system as private developers,” she said. “There’s this thing about undue harm.”

But Brooks agreed there should be some time limit and that whatever it is should apply to all who buy the properties without exception.

“We can’t use that as a shield to let lots linger and become blighted and attract crime,” she said of nonprofits. “There has to — for me — be a plan. Otherwise, you are going to have a block of blight.”

Millington solar farm a go despite moratorium

Meanwhile, commissioners are looking at a review of their rules in an attempt to make committee meetings shorter and avoid the problems of “a committee of one” — as Thornton called it — reviewing detailed proposals.

The March 6 committee discussion of the land bank proposal nearly got bumped to the end of the committee schedule again until Thornton objected and complained of a “basically flawed outline of time.”

“Since becoming a commissioner, we’ve not hit these time frames,” she said of the time allotted for each committee. “There has to be a better way for us to give space for issues.”

The item had 10 minutes set for a discussion, as did others, with multiple discussion items stacked one right after the other. The current commission isn’t alone in its scheduling problems.

Past commissions have been blowing past the 1 p.m. or so finish time for all committees for years and running as late as 6 p.m.

Shelby County solar farm rules are outdated. How they could change

Different parts of the county administration and countywide elected officials have been devoting much of their Wednesdays on committee weeks to waiting for hours past the start time of the items they are there to discuss.

“It really isn’t fair to all the people who come down here within their work day, and we are two and a half hours behind,” Avant said.

In other action at the Monday meeting, commissioners take the first of three votes on a set of new regulations for utility scale solar farms in the Unified Development Code.

The regulations in the ordinance would bar the large solar arrays from being located with a half-mile of existing solar farms.

It also requires setbacks and landscaping for the projects, as well as a special use permit that would require approval from the Shelby County Commission.

County Commission halts long-delayed Millington-area solar farm

The Land Use Control Board has approved the changes.

The first reading vote Monday follows a commission vote at its Feb. 26 meeting to deny a 1,500-acre solar farm by Graceland Solar in unincorporated northern Shelby County.

A special use permit was required for the project under terms on a moratorium on such developments the commission put in place earlier this year as the Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning and Development came up with new requirements.

The permit for Graceland Solar would have been an exception to the moratorium if granted. It fell short of the seven votes required for passage.

The commission also votes Monday on a total of $11.4 million in funding for changes to the South Cypress Creek Drainage Basin in the West Junction area of southwest Memphis.

The changes include stream restoration to South Cypress Creek, flood mitigation and park improvements.

The project is one of three in the county funded with $60.4 million in federal funding awarded to Shelby County government in a national resilience competition. The South Cypress Creek project uses $7.9 million in the federal funds. It also includes $3.5 million in funding from the city of Memphis toward the contract with Precise Concrete Works LLC.