Photograph & construction plan © Trilobite Design
As an architect with an appetite for challenging new builds, Scott Hand has worked with several clients of the Port of Cincinnati’s Land Bank. Officially known as the Hamilton County Land Reutilization Corporation, the Land Bank takes ownership of abandoned, tax-delinquent properties and sells them to buyers qualified to renovate or build on them. All but a handful of Land Bank houses have sold since its inception in 2011, but there remain 743 parcels of land still available. In his work with the Land Bank, Hand, who is principal architect at Trilobite Design, eventually found an ideal parcel for his own family.
“It’s an amazing spot in an amazing location,” he says. The eight-acre lot sits on the edge of Mt. Airy Forest, combining frontage on Colerain Avenue with a forested hillside—an unusual blend of urban and natural topography close to the city’s core. There, he designed and built a “Passive House,” which cleaves to an international standard of sustainability and energy efficiency. His pre-teen kids love playing in nature, his wife is replacing the overgrown honeysuckle with native plant species, and Hand himself can bike to work in Northside in under 10 minutes.
Photograph courtesy Trilobite Design
A cheap price on acreage doesn’t make Land Bank properties a discounted way to build a home. “Almost all of the properties are difficult to build on,” says Hand. “It’s part of why it is in the Land Bank.” Parcels may have steep slopes, odd shapes, or limited street access. “You can’t put any dream house anywhere you want,” he cautions. Right after purchasing, Hand had to immediately shore up a retaining wall, something that will be a “lifelong endeavor,” he says.
Still, Land Bank parcels are priced well below market value—many around $5,000 a pop. “We wouldn’t have been able to afford this kind of land anywhere else,” Hand says. Buyers must submit a development plan, with deed restrictions ensuring the property is improved as promised.
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