Why Should Delaware Care?
The Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank is the city’s primary tool for redeveloping dilapidated housing to new affordable units. The nonprofit receives funding from city taxpayers each year, but it has also been marked by mismanagement, embezzlement and accusations that it has strayed from its mission.
Wilmington City Council members have pulled back on calls to dissolve the agency in charge of redeveloping dilapidated city blocks, and instead have suggested transparency and leadership reforms.
The Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank, which was created by the city in 2015, has had a strained relationship with city officials for years following financial mismanagement, embezzlement by a former executive director, and ongoing transparency concerns.
In May, City Councilwoman Shané Darby proposed an ordinance that would have forced the Land Bank to dissolve within 60 days of the measure becoming law. The ordinance text claimed that the entity “has strayed from its initial goal” of purchasing and rehabbing vacant homes in the city and instead has become a “property shelter for developers.”
Backing the measure was a small faction of council members, including Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo and Councilman Coby Owens. But opposing it was a majority of the council, as well as Mayor John Carney.
During a council meeting on Thursday, Darby announced that she would place the measure on hold after other council members expressed that they could not support what they described as a “drastic” measure.
Still, despite opposition to the dissolution, almost all of the council said that the Land Bank’s operations are in need of significant improvements, and should be reformed.
“A functioning Land Bank can really do good things for a community and can play a role, like a really effective role. But the Wilmington Land Bank has had a long history of not achieving those goals,” said Councilwoman Christian Willauer, who also served as the Land Bank’s executive director in 2017.
For now, Darby has proposed a new ordinance to improve oversight and accountability by creating a Land Bank director position and revising the board’s composition.
The City Council will consider the ordinance for a first and second reading on July 10.
A short & unstable past
Since its inception, the Wilmington Land Bank has aimed to bring back vacant and blighted houses across the city, by acquiring the properties and then selling them to investors or renovating them through subcontractors to put them back on the market as affordable homes or rental units.
The agency receives approximately $500,000 annually from the city’s budget, along with additional grants and revenue from property sales. Since 2018, the Land Bank has repurposed around 400 properties — selling more than 150 for affordable homeownership and 46 for affordable rental housing.
Darby initially started to raise concerns about the Land Bank’s operations in April after it was discovered that it made a decision without council approval to act as a placeholder for the rehabilitation of the historic Gibraltar estate at the direction of former Mayor Mike Purzycki. To date, the Land Bank has distributed at least $2 million in taxpayer dollars to the renovation of the stately mansion.
While the money for Gibraltar has been a particular thorn for the entity, residents have also criticized the Land Bank’s core operations, highlighting how difficult and confusing the property acquisition process can be for locals trying to purchase homes.
In addition, a recent 2024 performance audit on the organization showed that it failed to have adequate procedures, internal controls, and record-keeping between 2021 and 2024.
Since then, the Land Bank has updated its website to include a new annual report, added a new inventory list, and hosted a public meeting to inform residents about its dealings with Gibraltar.
Council questions potential successor
At the center of the July 3 meeting discussion was the question of who would effectively take on the charge of renovating the city’s vacant and worn-down properties, if the Land Bank were to be dismantled.
Prior to the Land Bank’s existence, those properties were held by the city’s Department of Real Estate and Housing.
“Who can do it better?” Willauer asked during the meeting last week.
Hesitancy around terminating the organization came as some councilmembers, like Michelle Harlee and Yolanda McCoy, emphasized the Land Bank’s role in revitalizing the East Side and Southbridge neighborhoods and its partnerships with organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity.
While both acknowledged the need for greater transparency within the agency, they said it has had a positive impact on the city.
“All I’m simply saying is there are projects in the pipeline that’s going to impact residents that are looking forward to them being completed. And I just don’t believe that dismantling it without a process is the best thing for us to do,” Harlee said during the meeting.
Councilmembers James Spadola and Chris Johnson shared similar concerns about who would take on the Land Bank’s work in the short term.
Still, criticisms around the Land Bank’s operations have remained a major point of contention.
Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver noted last week that while a large share of renovation work goes to minority contractors, most are Hispanic. Only a few Black contractors are involved, she said.
Councilmember Coby Owens and Willauer expressed concerns that the Land Bank is creating more homeownership opportunities for out-of-state buyers, despite being funded by city taxpayers.
But Councilwoman Maria Cabrera, an active board member and supporter of the Land Bank, highlighted that the organization is not allowed to single out who and who cannot purchase properties.
Darby undeterred in fight
In the end, Darby said she wasn’t surprised by the lack of support from her colleagues, noting that their push for reform instead of dissolution was “the easy way out.”
“In my opinion, they don’t want to do the work,” Darby told Spotlight Delaware.
She explained that her decision to table the ordinance was based on the pending passage of a separate measure that would require council members to be physically present in chambers for their votes to be counted, except in emergency cases.
Although the in-chamber vote requirement, which she says won’t be proposed until August, may not change the council’s opposition to dissolving the Land Bank, Darby said she still wants to be able to have the conversation with all members physically present.
After that measure is passed, Darby plans to re-propose the ordinance to dismantle the Land Bank before the end of this year, as she believes reforming the entity won’t fully address the organization’s issues.
