Land Banks: How Data Transforms Vacancy into Value
Vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties – often referred to as “problem properties” – are known to have a negative impact on the social, environmental, and economic health of a neighborhood. As cities around the country face growing inventories of such properties, land banking has become an attractive tool to help cities address this issue and return properties (and lots) to productive reuse. Land banks are public or community-owned entities created for a single purpose: to acquire, manage, maintain, and repurpose vacant, abandoned, and foreclosed properties (and empty lots).
Hear from Robert Linn from Detroit’s Land Bank Authority and Michael Schramm from Cuyahoga County’s Land Revitalization Corporation to learn how each organization innovatively integrated data and mapping into the development of their land bank strategy and subsequent operations. Learn about the data they used to understand vacancy in their areas, the software they employed to analyze and track activity, the challenges they faced and successes they’ve achieved. Their use of data to drive neighborhood level decision making holds relevance not just for other land banks, but community development activity in general.