How to Form a Land Bank

Communities across the country looking for a solution to vacant properties and neighborhood revitalization are increasingly turning to land banks to make it happen.

A land bank is a public entity with unique powers to put vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties—including brownfield properties—back to productive use according to community goals. A land bank’s primary purpose is to acquire properties that some call “blighted” and temporarily hold and take care of them until they can be transferred to new, responsible owners.

There are over 300 land banks and land banking programs in the United States as of 2024, operating at municipal, city, county, regional, and even state levels. Download this brief guide to think through some of the big considerations and steps to getting a land bank off the ground. Your state and local laws will impose additional and more specific requirements.