Blog

Vacant Land Stewardship

To Prevent Illegal Dumping, You Have to Know the Scale of the Problem

How to conduct a neighborhood survey to assess the scale of illegal dumping and prioritize city resources for cleanup and prevention.

Five Innovative Approaches from Land Banks Across the Country

Five examples of creative approaches land banks have taken to addressing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties.

Opportunities to Connect Urban Conservation and Vacant Land Stewardship

In many communities, tackling vacant lots can feel like an impossible challenge. Local officials, land banks, and community organizations recognize the importance of finding effective strategies to maintain and repurpose vacant lots to meet community needs. According to the National Land Bank Network’s 2023 State of Land Banking Survey, vacant…

The Problem with Calling Neighborhoods with Vacant Properties “Blighted”

Blight is a shorthand term many people use to refer to properties they perceive as problematic in some way.

How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect Communities

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties—referred to by some as “blighted properties”—pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more.

How to Prevent and Reduce Illegal Dumping

Cities spend millions each year cleaning up illegal dumping. What if they tried to make vacant lots less appealing to dumping in the first place?

New Study Shows Land Bank Ownership of Vacant Lots Can Reduce Violent Crime

A vacant lot owned and cared for by a land bank sees a greater decrease in crime compared to privately owned lots, finds 2023 study in Flint, MI.

Transforming Cleveland Vacant Lots into an Urban Farm

How the Cuyahoga Land Bank and a community activist worked together to transform a block one property at a time.

Vacant Land is More Than a Single Lot—it’s a System.

Conceptualizing vacant land as a system makes it possible to identify where strategic interventions can push the system toward different, more desirable outcomes.

What Causes “Urban Prairies” in Shrinking Cities?

As cities shrink, once-urban land becomes available for other uses or reverts to nature, leading to the phenomenon of “urban prairies.”