June 19, 2021
Land Banks and Land Banking, 2nd Edition The Authoritative Resource on Modern Land Banking
Land Banks and Land Banking, 2nd Edition The Authoritative Resource on Modern Land Banking
Author(s): Center for Community Progress
Prince George’s County is in a prime position to better utilize and coordinate existing tools to address vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent (VAT) properties in a more equitable, effective, and efficient manner, and continue exploring how a land bank could also be leveraged to support local affordable housing goals enumerated in Housing Opportunity for All (HOFA). A key recommendation in HOFA was the creation of a land bank as a potential tool to support the redevelopment of vacant and abandoned residential properties throughout Prince George’s County. Therefore, leadership of the County’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) invited Community Progress to assess how the County can better address the inventory of vacant and abandoned properties to support the affordable housing goals identified in HOFA using existing tools as well as potential new tools like a land bank. Properties that were tax delinquent were also included in the assessment given the nonpayment of property taxes is usually a clear warning that a property is going into decline.
The existing legal tools that are the primary focus of this report are housing and building code enforcement (code enforcement) and delinquent property tax enforcement. Without maximizing and coordinating these existing tools in Prince George’s County, a new tool like a land bank will not only be ineffective but will likely become overwhelmed with a large inventory of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent (VAT) properties since there are no measures in place to prevent properties from going into decline.
Key takeaways from our assessment are:
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