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University City manager proposes using LCRA to acquire hazardous and abandoned properties
Summary
City Manager Charles Rose asked the City Council to add a project to the 2025–27 work plan to examine use of the LCRA to acquire hazardous or abandoned properties, with the Third Ward revitalization coordinator to lead an initial inventory and study; staff will bring a formal agenda item in February.
City Manager Charles Rose asked the University City City Council on Jan. 27 to add one project to the 2025–27 work plan to examine using the LCRA for acquisition of hazardous or abandoned properties.
Rose said the work would be carried out by the new community development department and “the person or individual that would be responsible for it would be the Third Ward revitalization coordinator,” a position the council previously authorized. He told the council the first step would be to use that individual to inventory abandoned or dilapidated homes in the Third Ward and then assess program design, and that deputy city manager Brooke Smith is preparing the job description and posting the position with Human Resources Director Amy Williams.
The city manager said the team would “examine what would be a effective use of the LCRA for acquiring those type of properties,” and that one possible outcome would be to rehabilitate homes and then “probably bid them out, allow the private sector to try and place them back on the market.” He added the city would prepare a full program for council review and direction.
Council Member Clay noted most vacancies are concentrated in the Third Ward but asked how properties elsewhere in University City would be handled without drawing on funds earmarked for the Third Ward. Rose and council members described an initial inventory conducted by the revitalization coordinator that could be citywide, with the staff later proposing a cost-share method allocating the employee’s cost by the percentage of dilapidated housing located in the Third Ward compared with the rest of the city.
Council discussion otherwise focused on program design, boundaries of Third Ward funds, and next steps. Rose said, if there is no other direction, his intention is to place the item on the regular agenda for the council’s final meeting in February for formal consideration.
Next steps: staff will prepare the job posting and an inventory methodology, and the council will consider a formal agenda item in February before any program launch.
