Center for Community Progress Congratulates Recipients of Land Bank Innovative Approach Award

Genesee County Land Bank, Louisville Landbank Authority, Lucas County Land Bank, Omaha Municipal Land Bank, and Tri-COG Land Bank all received awards to launch new projects and programs that advance community revitalization.

FLINT, MI – The Center for Community Progress (Community Progress) is pleased to award five land banks with the first-ever National Land Bank Network (NLBN) Innovative Approach Award to help them launch new strategies and approaches to acquiring, stabilizing, and revitalizing problem properties. 

“This award is meant to encourage land banks—some of the hardest working but resource-strapped public institutions—to try out new strategies that get vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties back to productive uses that benefit the community,” said Brian Larkin, Director of the National Land Bank Network at Community Progress. 

The award, which is specifically focused on supporting work that would not normally occur within regular land bank operations, seeks to support projects addressing community engagement, improving data and systems, increasing climate resilience, promoting equity, and/or stewarding vacant lots. 

Read below about the selected awardees and their proposed projects: 

• Genesee County Land Bank (Michigan) will create an automated scoring tool that integrates multiple up-to-date data sets that enables them to rank and prioritize structures slated for demolition according to resident priorities. 
  
• Louisville Landbank Authority (Kentucky) will launch the Landbank Training Opportunity for Louisville Students (LTOOLS) program, which will pair student groups with neighborhood residents to assist block cleanup, land bank lot beautification, and minor exterior residential maintenance. 
  
• Lucas County Land Bank (Ohio) will develop a robust neighborhood resident and stakeholder engagement process to help guide redevelopment plans for a former Catholic parish in the heart of The Junction, a predominantly Black neighborhood. 
  
• Omaha Municipal Land Bank (Nebraska) will bolster its Ambassador Program to provide a more diverse pool of board applicants, educate future board members and volunteers about the land bank, and increase community outreach.  
  
• Tri-COG Land Bank (Pennsylvania) will conduct a planning study for a future solar farm on vacant, abandoned land in North Braddock, Pennsylvania. This plan will also serve as a model for other communities seeking to address climate change through increased adoption of renewable energy technologies.  

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About Community Progress: The Center for Community Progress helps people to transform vacant spaces into vibrant places. Since 2010, their team of experts has provided urban, suburban, and rural communities battling systemic vacancy with the policies, tools, and resources needed to address the full cycle of property revitalization. As the only national nonprofit dedicated to tackling vacant properties, Community Progress drives change by uncovering and disrupting the unjust, racist systems that perpetuate entrenched vacancy and property deterioration. Community Progress has delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. To learn more and get help for your community, visit communityprogress.org. 

About the National Land Bank Network: The National Land Bank Network (NLBN) at the Center for Community Progress connects land bank leaders to the tools, networks, and resources they need to return vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties to productive use. As the first membership-based community of practice for the field of land banking, NLBN supports the over 300 land banks and land banking programs throughout the United States with in-person and online convening, research, technical assistance, and equity-focused education.