Land Banks: A Revitalization Tool

Land banks are very important tools for today’s American city. Almost every major city in the United States has problems with vacant, abandoned, tax delinquent and/or tax foreclosed properties. Land banks can alleviate some the stress put on cities because of tax base loss and blight. Vacancies in these neighborhoods are detrimental to the community as a whole. The vacancies attract blight, crime, significantly reduce property values, and affect the overall well-being of the community. Land Banks promote the idea of bringing back livable communities by selling these distressed properties to new and hopefully responsible owners.
I will be comparing three land banks in three counties. They are Shelby County (Memphis, TN), Genesee County (Flint, MI), and Fulton County (Atlanta, GA). These land banks have different operations for how they handle their properties and all sorts of programs. I’m going to examine how these counties differ from Shelby County.
The land bank can acquire properties in several different ways depending on the cities requirements for acquisition. The main way the land bank acquires properties is through tax delinquencies. The county can also purchase abandoned or distressed properties and add them into the land bank. Once, the property is acquired there are a variety of things a county can do in order to improve the communities.

Genesee County (Flint, MI)

The land bank in Genesee County offers many programs to alleviate the stress caused by problem properties. Some of the programs offered include:
· Adopt-a-Lot: Ability for residents/businesses to maintain vacant lots.
· Clean and Green: Maintain a least 25 properties and do two gardening projects.
· Demolition: Aids in the removal of dilapidated housing
· Housing Renovation and Rental: Renovates 25 to 50 houses a year to promote homeownership and affordable housing
· Property Sales: Helps with purchasing options i.e. cash, conventional mortgage, land contracts, lease with an option to buy.
· Side Lot Transfer: Landowners can purchase a vacant lot directly next to their property for 25 dollars plus minor administrative fees. It brings the vacant lot back online for property tax collection.
· Foreclosure Prevention
All of these programs promote restoring beauty, putting and keeping people in their homes.

Fulton County (Atlanta, GA)

The Land Bank Authority in Fulton County has a mission plan with three objectives. It has similar goal and objectives as the Land Bank in Genesee County. They are:
· To return nonrevenue generating, non-tax producing property to an effective utilization status in order to provide housing, new industry and jobs for the citizens of the County.
· To acquire title to certain tax delinquent properties which it will in turn inventory, classify, manage, maintain, protect, rent, lease, repair, insure, alter, sell, trade, exchange or otherwise dispose of under such terms and conditions.
· To extinguish past due tax liens from property foreclosed upon by Fulton County and the City of Atlanta in their tax collection capacities.
The Land Bank Authority has the power to extinguish all taxes on a property. When the property is held by the land bank it is tax exempt. They will hold parcels of land for future governmental purposes such as affordable housing, open space, and greenways. Additionally, they have a program called the REO Acquisition Program which allows buyers to purchase Real Estate Owned properties before they are sold in the traditional way. It provides a bigger discount for the buyer.
The Fulton County Land Bank acts a liaison between the county and community development corporations. The CDC’s can purchase the homes from the land bank and obtain a title that is free and clear of all liens. Non-profits can claim properties and the Land Bank will hold them for up to five years so the non-profit does not have to pay holding cost (taxes). That saves the non-profit money and they can rehab the property when the timing is right. Non-profits can use these programs offered by the Land Bank in order to create affordable housing for low to moderate income residents. Furthermore, many properties can be purchased under the Targeted Bulk Purchase Program. This can be used for affordable housing and the Land Bank can hold the properties in the early development phase so the properties would still be tax exempt.

Shelby County (Memphis, TN)

The Shelby County Land Bank has over 3,600 properties that are available for purchase. They obtain properties that go into tax foreclosure and they take properties that are given to them. The ultimate goal is to get these properties active on the tax roll. They also want to help revitalize neighborhoods and encourage development in the inner ring suburbs.
The Shelby County Land Bank has a lot to learn from the other counties. The other land banks have extensive programs that promote homeownership, rehabbing, rentals, open and green space. Shelby County has the same problems as those counties; they should be proactive and add similar programs. They should copy some of the programs that would work best for Shelby County and implement them as soon as possible.