Michigan Land Bank Leaders to Gather for Summit Hosted by Center for Community Progress (Press Release)

Flint, Mich. – Nearly one hundred Michigan land bank leaders are gathering at the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City, Michigan, from June 16-17, 2014 for the Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit, hosted by the Center for Community Progress. Attendees, representing 30 land banks, are comprised primarily of land bank executive directors, board members, and other top leadership.

Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) and George McCarthy, incoming president of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and current director of metropolitan opportunity at the Ford Foundation, will deliver keynote addresses on June 16.

The Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit is designed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and other problem-solving opportunities for senior land bank leadership across the state. Session topics include understanding local markets, exploring the latest research on land banking, developing and implementing land bank strategies, and exploring land bank funding opportunities. Organizers hope the summit will provide opportunities for leaders to learn best practices that can be adapted to meet local needs, preferences, and markets.

“Every day, land bank leaders are making decisions that have an impact on the lives of Michigan families. There’s a lot at stake,” said Tamar Shapiro, president and CEO of the Center for Community Progress. “The Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit is about making sure those leaders have the knowledge and networks they need to make decisions that support local priorities in the communities they serve.”

The Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit builds upon past land bank conferences convened in Michigan by the Flint-based Center for Community Progress. Support for the Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit is provided by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), Michigan Association of Land Banks (MALB).

Land banks are government or nonprofit entities focused on returning vacant, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties to productive use. They are created to acquire, maintain and dispose of problem properties according to local land use priorities. Since Michigan passed its landmark Land Bank Fast Track Act in 2003, land banking has grown to include 38 land banks throughout the state.

About Center for Community Progress

Founded in 2010, the Center for Community Progress is the only national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization solely dedicated to building a future in which entrenched, systemic blight no longer exists in American communities. The mission of Community Progress is to ensure that communities have the vision, knowledge, and systems to transform blighted, vacant, and other problem properties into assets supporting neighborhood vitality. As a national leader on solutions for blight and vacancy, Community Progress serves as the leading resource for local, state and federal policies and best practices that address the full cycle of property revitalization, from blight prevention, through the acquisition and maintenance of problem properties, to their productive reuse. Major support for Community Progress is generously provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Ford Foundation.