The Road Ahead for Land Banks

Author(s): Kim Graziani

There are over 300 land banks and land banking programs operating across the United States, and the field has come a long way since the first land banks formed in the early 1970s.

For over 40 years, land banks have kept a sharp focus on removing harmful vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties from the vicious cycle of tax sales and out of the hands of speculators. Land banks help ensure these properties are instead sold to responsible owners for uses that support community goals, building wealth for generations to come.

In 2023, Community Progress conducted our biennial State of Land Banking Survey to understand where the field is, how it has changed, and where it is going. This publication highlights key survey findings with context from our extensive experience and provides examples from a broad assortment of land banks.
One of the most significant changes in the field is that land banks are doing fewer demolitions and “blight” removal and instead taking a more active role in developing affordable housing and facilitating property rehabilitation. More land banks are also developing strategies to address vacant land, which makes up the bulk of land bank inventory. Additionally, more land banks are expanding their scope beyond residential development to include brownfields and commercial vacancy, showcasing their flexibility and responsiveness to current challenges.

While some opportunities and challenges like funding, politics, and community engagement have remained consistent, others like inventory decline and racial equity and justice have emerged more recently. Other challenges, like climate change, did not surface as much in the survey results but are one of the key issues that need to be addressed moving forward.

No two land banks—and no two communities—are identical. A land bank’s flexibility to respond to local challenges and opportunities sets it apart from other entities. Land banks continue to demonstrate that they have a superpower to evolve, pivot, and respond to meet the changing needs of the communities they serve. This is now more important than ever given the realities of the real estate market and of community and economic development. Many communities are seeing increased interest from outside speculative investors and a severe lack of quality affordable housing. Property values are rising astronomically in some communities while disinvestment deepens in others; in a way, both can crush a resident’s dreams of building generational wealth.

But how can land banks more effectively serve their communities’ greatest needs? Are VAD properties the biggest challenge? If so, do land banks have the right legal powers, resources, and capacity to transform VAD properties into community assets for and with residents? If VAD properties are not the biggest challenge, what is? Can a land bank help tackle that challenge to achieve transformational changes that benefit neighbors and neighborhoods?

Every community will answer these questions differently, but if you do not continuously ask, land banks will not continue to evolve. Without asking these questions and having honest discussions about the effectiveness and equity of our work, true transformation is not possible. History shows that while many land banks have evolved, some remain stuck as primarily transactional entities. Change is possible, and we must continue to challenge ourselves and others to improve.