Rochester Land Bank Five-Year Strategic Plan

Executive Summary

Since its founding in 2013, the Rochester Land Bank Corporation (RLBC) has served a critical role in acquiring vacant, tax-foreclosed properties across the city of Rochester. Changing market and legal realities and an increased need for affordable housing necessitate RLBC evolve to continue serving Rochester residents to its fullest capability.

These changes in legal and market dynamics have undermined the land bank’s primary decade-long strategy. The May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County and the city’s skyrocketing residential market have severely limited RLBC’s ability to predictably and cost-effectively acquire tax-foreclosed, vacant homes. This inflection point is an opportunity to reassess RLBC’s role and the extent of its impact in addressing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties.

The central objective of the strategic planning process was to help RLBC assess its practices and strategies considering these new dynamics. During this process, a significant neighborhood challenge (and opportunity) was uncovered: the City’s vast inventory of vacant lots.

Over the next five years, RLBC should evolve its practices to address this portfolio of 2,500 publicly owned vacant lots. Focusing on acquiring these lots provides RLBC a cost-effective and strategic opportunity to accomplish its mission of revitalizing VAD properties and creating more vibrant neighborhoods for Rochester’s residents.

This strategic plan ambitiously reimagines RLBC. It emphasizes a place-based approach in the City’s Northwest Quadrant, with RLBC playing a central role coordinating resident-driven neighborhood revitalization while still allowing the land bank flexibility to seize strategic opportunities citywide. At the core of this plan is a call to implement a focused investment approach within a newly defined Land Bank Reinvestment District.

This shift will require RLBC to refine its acquisition strategy and rethink its programs and policies. It also demands a nimble operational model that embraces the land bank’s flexible powers, reimagines board representation to reflect neighborhood voices, and enhances organizational capacity for deeper community engagement and new partnerships. The plan also encourages a “Whole Blocks Approach,” which requires RLBC to gain a deeper understanding of current conditions and opportunities for redevelopment by leveraging parcel data, mapping neighborhood trends, engaging and centering residents, and coordinating partners pursuant to a shared vision and long-term goals.

This strategic plan sets the stage for RLBC to play a central role in expanding homeownership and building generational wealth for Rochester residents—priorities for the current administration, city council, board, staff, and stakeholders. The Pillars and Goals guiding this approach are as follows:

Pillar 1: Target RLBC resources and capacity to stabilize neighborhoods, and advance homeownership, affordability, and wealth generation options in the Northwest Quadrant

Goal 1: Identify a geographical focus within the Northwest Quadrant to serve as the Reinvestment District
Goal 2: Pursue all available strategies to acquire vacant, harmful properties in the Reinvestment District
Goal 3: Engage partners to identify, commit, and coordinate investments consistent with resident priorities and a whole blocks approach

Pillar 2: Engage Reinvestment District residents to understand neighborhood needs and priorities

Goal 1: Hire a dedicated staff member to support community engagement and build capacity with partners
Goal 2: Embed the land bank and this initiative in the Northwest Neighborhood Service Center to build trust and ensure accessibility
Goal 3: Establish new partnerships with citywide organizations that can support place-based neighborhood engagement tactics
Goal 4: Conduct a parcel conditions survey in the Reinvestment District and identify up to three areas primed for a Whole Blocks approach

Pillar 3: Expand and reform organizational capacity and structure

Goal 1: Expand capacity for long range planning
Goal 2: Expand board representation to increase public awareness and trust
Goal 3: Enhance operational flexibility by engaging external legal services and managing all procurement processes internally and independently

Pillar 4: Aggressively pursue and coordinate funding to maximize resources strategically flowing into Reinvestment District

Goal 1: Aggressively pursue New York State grant opportunities to address internal capacity needs and neighborhood revitalization goals
Goal 2: Secure annual operating grant from the City of Rochester
Goal 3: Prioritize private funding requests from philanthropy to support elements of this plan

Pillar 5: Increase transparency and awareness with public and track impact

Goal 1: Increase transparency and awareness surrounding land bank activities
Goal 2: Track and report RLBC’s outcomes and impact

Pillar 6: Improve efficiency of high impact acquisitions across the city

Goal 1: Pursue limited, targeted acquisition for high impact, tax-foreclosed properties
Goal 2: Explore acquisition of brownfields through environmental tax sale