City votes to do away with Urban Redevelopment Plan

The Marlin City Council voted to do away with Marlin’s Urban Redevelopment Plan and return those duties to Fall County during a meeting June 11. Mayor Carolyn Lofton said the properties are currently bid through an application process and that is not good for Marlin. “Upon receiving the information regarding struck off properties it became clear to me this is an unproductive process,” Lofton said. “We have properties valued at $25,000 being sold for $100 and individuals applying for properties for $10 a lot. I don’t see where that is benefiting Marlin at all. I struggle with that. I think that needs to be turned back over to the county.” Precinct 5 Councilmember Douglas Porter said all these properties that have been sold have been sitting out here 15 or 20 years on the dead rolls.

“The whole purpose of selling those is to get them back on the tax rolls,” he said. “If they get back on the tax rolls people clean them up and those taxes come back to us. The idea was to sell it for whatever would be paid for it and get it back on the tax rolls.” Lofton said she believes the city could have gotten fair prices to begin with through a different process. “If this would have been in an auction process where the citizens of Marlin knew that properties were going to start at $10 you would have had people show up,” she said. “People were not given the opportunity to know. 

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition http://www.etypeservices.com/Marlin%20DemocratID558/