Addressing Vacancy and Brownfield Properties in Louisiana

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties harm communities by reducing property values and undermining public health and safety. Brownfield properties—a subset of VAD properties where actual or potential contamination makes redevelopment challenging and costly—are especially difficult to address.

In many parts of the United States, communities use land banks to temporarily acquire and steward VAD and brownfield properties toward productive reuse aligned with community goals. Recent changes to Louisiana’s property tax system, coupled with new statewide land bank enabling legislation, may make it easier for communities to address VAD and brownfield properties. Given that Louisiana has one of the nation’s highest vacancy rates, these changes could have a significant positive impact. This resource describes Louisiana’s vacancy challenges, its recent changes to state law, and examples of how communities across the state and country have used land banks as a revitalization tool.

Property Vacancy in Louisiana

Current Trends and Future Outlook

Louisiana has one of the country’s highest percentages of vacant properties. As of 2024, 8.12 percent of properties in the state were vacant, trailing only Mississippi, West Virginia, and Puerto Rico. While pockets of vacancy persist across the state, the highest concentrations are in northern and central Louisiana, where over 20 percent of properties are vacant in some parishes. Population decline and the resulting reduced demand for existing housing is a root cause of vacancy, and with Louisiana’s population growth among the slowest in the country, vacancy will likely remain a critical challenge—or even worsen—in the coming years.

Identifying Brownfield Properties

No national database tracks brownfield properties, making it difficult to know the extent of the brownfield inventory (e.g., abandoned farms and factories, older housing stock with asbestos and lead-based paint) in any community.

One of the closest proxies is tracking where communities receive US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant funding to address brownfield sites. However, these numbers greatly underestimate the scope of the problem, as they omit properties that go unaddressed or are remediated using other funding sources. Figure 1 shows the percent of vacant properties overlaid with distribution of EPA brownfield grants by parish.

Delinquent tax enforcement and land banking are two tools that can help revitalize vacant properties, and recent state legislative changes have expanded Louisiana communities’ ability to use both. Recent changes to the state’s tax enforcement system, along with the new State Land Bank Authority Act, present opportunities for communities to intervene in the tax foreclosure system to address VAD and brownfield properties statewide.

Land Banking: A New Tool for Louisiana Communities

On August 1, 2025, Governor Jeff Landry signed Senate Bill No. 189, enacting the State Land Bank Authority Act. The act allows Louisiana local governments (municipalities or parishes) to establish land banks.

Before this law, some local governments were authorized to set up redevelopment authorities, and some of these entities were granted land bank powers. Many of them today make significant contributions to their regional economic and community development landscape.

Land banking powers vary widely by state and community, depending on their enabling legislation, but generally the most effective land banks can:

• acquire properties cost-effectively through tax foreclosure and/or code enforcement processes,
  hold properties tax-exempt,
• extinguish liens and clear title, and
• flexibly sell property to responsible end users in alignment with community goals.

Figure 2 summarizes the land bank powers granted under the Louisiana State Land Bank Authority Act, and their effectiveness compared to land banking best practices across the country.

Changes to Louisiana’s Property Tax System: Implications for Land Banks

Bidding at tax lien sales and receiving transferred tax liens from local governments are two potential ways Louisiana land banks could acquire property.

In 2024, Louisiana made significant changes to its delinquent property tax enforcement system, which communities considering a land bank should review closely.

Under the new system, effective January 1, 2026, the unpaid tax debt (tax lien) is sold rather than the property itself, following this process:

• Notices: The sheriff must send notices to tax-delinquent property owners before the tax lien sale. The law details timing and content of notices.
• Tax lien sale: The sheriff runs the tax lien sale. Tax liens are sold to the bidder willing to charge the property owner the lowest interest rate. A tax lien certificate is recorded after the sale. Unsold liens transfer to the local government.
• Redemption period: The purchaser cannot foreclose on the tax lien for three years after the sale, during which the property owner may pay off the lien.
• Foreclosure: If the lien is not paid off within three years, the lienholder can pursue judicial foreclosure, provided they give at least six months’ notice to everyone with an interest in the property (e.g., property owners, mortgage holders, heirs). The process may result in an in rem sheriff’s sale, through which a tax deed may be issued to the highest bidder.
• Tax lien expiration: Private lienholders generally lose foreclosure rights seven years after the sale is recorded, after which the lien is extinguished. Local governments are not subject to this expiration period, though it is currently unclear whether land banks will be.

Land banks may also be interested in acquiring “adjudicated properties,” which are those the local government acquired through tax foreclosure before the policy changes took effect on January 1, 2026. Confirming ownership of these properties may require additional steps, including a filing a case in court to clear title.

Land Banks’ Unique Value for Addressing Brownfield Properties in Louisiana

Land banks are a helpful tool to address brownfield properties that become “stuck” in the tax or code enforcement systems. Because they focus specifically on vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties, land bank staff and board members often bring combined expertise in planning, development, and tax and code enforcement systems, positioning them well to address most brownfields.

Louisiana land banks have the following features under the State Land Bank Authority Act that make them well suited to return brownfield properties to productive use.

• Cost-effective acquisition: Land banks have multiple mechanisms to acquire properties cost-effectively. This can help offset the added expense of the lengthy assessment and remediation processes many brownfield sites require.
• Stable leadership: Initial land bank board members are appointed by name in the local enabling ordinance, which can insulate land banks from political turnover and provide steady leadership during long-term redevelopment projects.
• Tax-exempt holding: Land banks are statutorily authorized to hold properties tax-free, further reducing overall project costs during lengthy redevelopment timelines.
• Federal funding eligibility: As nonprofit entities, land banks are eligible for federal funding from the US EPA for brownfield assessment, remediation, and reuse, and may qualify for certain federal liability protections.
• Flexible disposition: Land banks typically have more flexible disposition authority than other government agencies and, unlike other entities, are not required to sell properties to the highest bidder. This helps land banks ensure brownfield properties are redeveloped in line with community goals like affordable housing, public transit, and green space.

Land banks may play a variety of roles in brownfield revitalization—some transfer properties to a developer after the initial environmental site assessment, while others may hold properties through remediation, reuse planning, and redevelopment. As Louisiana communities consider how to use the State Land Bank Authority Act and recent tax enforcement system changes to address VAD and brownfield properties, examples from other communities may offer useful models. The following examples show different ways land banks have used their unique powers to return brownfields to productive use.

Leveraging Land Banking for Creative Reuse of Brownfields

Public Partnership to Create Affordable Housing in Houston, Texas

The site of the former Yellow Cab Company headquarters in Houston’s Near Northside community is another example of effective public partnership to clean up and redevelop a brownfield. Between 2019 and 2024, the Houston Land Bank, City of Houston, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and EPA worked through the slow, methodical process of testing for and removing contaminants from the site (which was privately owned at the time).

Following the cleanup, the Houston Land Bank purchased two non-adjacent tracts at the site, while the Harris County Housing Finance Corporation purchased the adjoining tract. Guided by an extensive community visioning process, the partners determined all three sites would be used for mixed-income residential development, including affordable multi- and single-family housing. The Harris County Finance Corporation and its subsidiary community land trust are leading the development of multi-family housing on one tract, aiming to reserve 80 percent of units for households earning 80 percent or less of the area median income. The Houston Land Bank is securing funding to develop 40 affordable single-family homes on the two surrounding tracts. A key outcome of cleaning up a brownfield site is that it allows the property to transfer to a new owner without liability, a powerful first step towards redevelopment. The Yellow Cab project shows the power of public partnership in returning problem properties back to productive use.

Best Practices from Suffolk County, New York

The Suffolk County Land Bank was created in part to ensure responsible, productive reuse of vacant, tax-delinquent brownfield properties. One of its key roles is completing Phase I and II environmental site assessments to determine the extent of contamination and approximate remediation cost. This reduces risk for prospective buyers, giving them a clear picture of the extent of remediation needed and the realistic end uses for a given site.

The land bank’s efforts created a ripple effect that went beyond individual property outcomes. After learning about the land bank’s new process for marketing and selling tax-delinquent brownfield properties, owners of vacant, contaminated commercial properties began reimbursing the county for years of back taxes, ultimately generating over $12.5 million from approximately 190 property owners.
Suffolk County Land Bank has also pioneered other best practices. Through a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), both the land bank and subsequent purchasers of its brownfield properties are insulated from state-level environmental liability, provided cleanup meets DEC’s standards. The land bank also requires buyers to pay an environmental deposit for the projected cleanup cost, releasing those funds until once cleanup is completed, which ensures timely remediation of brownfield sites.

Mixed Use Development at a Former Power Plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Build East Baton Rouge (Build EBR), East Baton Rouge Parish’s redevelopment authority which has land bank powers, led the redevelopment of a long-vacant and historic energy plant donated to the land bank. The former Entergy power plant and brownfield site required remediation, significant redevelopment, and a bold vision to realize its potential: a mixed-use cultural and commercial anchor for the community.

The site entered Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality’s Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP) in 2012. The VRP addressed asbestos, lead-based paint, mold, avian waste, and other hazardous materials in the property. Build EBR assembled site control, led a community planning process to align redevelopment with local priorities, and developed a master plan. It then released a request for proposals and partnered with local developers and community stakeholders to redevelop the site. Today “The Electric Depot” is a local hub with restaurants, retail, housing, entertainment, green space, and more.

Build EBR used its land bank powers to retain site ownership throughout redevelopment. This allowed the property to enter Build EBR’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program, an initiative that catalyzes development by temporarily abating property taxes and allowing developers to redirect capital to the transformational projects at a given site. While this lowered property tax revenue in the short term, it allowed for the reuse of a long-vacant historic site and encouraged further investment in the corridor. The project shows how land banks can partner with public and private entities on both environmental remediation and reuse planning, and the value of prioritizing long-term community goals over short-term tax gains.

From Brownfield to Solar Field in Scioto County, Ohio

Not every brownfield site becomes housing or retail. Converting brownfield sites into solar fields, for example, reduces the overall cost of remediation and redevelopment since the required cleanup is less intensive than it would be for occupied property. At the same time, it produces an ongoing revenue stream for the community. The New Boston Coke Plant in Scioto County illustrates this approach.

The plant, which produced the coal-based fuel “coke,” shut its doors in April 2002, shortly before an Ohio EPA report found that residents living near the plant faced increased cancer risk from airborne toxins released during coke production. The 25-acre site sat empty for nearly 20 years until the Scioto County Land Bank and the local port authority partnered to remediate it and return it to productive use as a solar field with the goal of selling power to an adjacent wastewater treatment plant and other nearby industrial businesses.

The land bank took ownership of the property to abate asbestos and dispose of hazardous waste, supported by cleanup funding from the Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program. The land bank then transferred the property to the Southern Ohio Port Authority for redevelopment as a solar field. Through energy sales to nearby businesses, the solar field is anticipated to bring much-needed revenue to a community that lost over 200 jobs when the coke plant closed.

Additional Resources and Examples

For more examples of how land banks can help communities address VAD properties and brownfields, check out:

• Land Banks and Brownfields: Primer
• Land Banks and Brownfields: Case Studies
• Land Banks and Brownfield Redevelopment: A Step by Step Guide
• Emerging Practices and Practical Considerations for Land Banks and Brownfield Redevelopment
• A Brief Primer on Brownfield Remediation and Reuse
• How to Form a Land Bank

“Addressing Vacancy and Brownfield Properties in Louisiana,” was made possible through grant funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency.