Land Bank Incubator Scholarship

The Center for Community Progress’ Land Bank Incubator Scholarship program supports local and state leaders in their efforts to launch new land banks, or retool and strengthen existing land banks, in pursuit of equitable recovery outcomes.

Land banks have the power to advance communities’ long-term goals of building healthy, inclusive, and resilient neighborhoods for all. As the national expert and hub for land banks across the country, Community Progress, in partnership with Arnold Ventures, created the Land Bank Incubator Scholarship Program (LBIS) to meet a critical need at a critical time.

The Land Bank Incubator Scholarship Program aims to:

Expand the number of land banks in states that already have state enabling land bank legislation
Help local and/or state partners design and adopt new state enabling land bank legislation where no state law currently exists
Help local and/or state partners reform and optimize their state’s existing enabling land bank legislation

Six applicants were competitively selected to receive customized, high-impact technical assistance at no cost, from a team of national experts at Community Progress. Projects ranged from statewide legislative reform to assistance with local implementation and operational considerations. Learn more about the projects and success of the program below.

Please note we are no longer accepting applications, as all scholarship resources have been awarded.

Interested in the history of the program? Download the Program Overview »

Statewide Reform

Alabama: Cities of Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile
In Alabama, a state with existing enabling land bank legislation, LBIS efforts were focused on building cross-city consensus on reforms to strengthen municipalities’ abilities to address VAD properties throughout the state. Community Progress convened delegations from Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham to focus on VAD strategies, and supported three workgroups, focused on land banking, code enforcement, and tax enforcement systems. Reform legislation was crafted for all three systems, and a land banking bill was introduced in the 2022 shortened legislative session. Advocacy for all three bills is planned in 2023.

Indiana: Prosperity Indiana
Prosperity Indiana, with a network of supporters from across the state, sought to analyze the state’s existing Land Bank Act for deficiencies and draft reform legislation that would optimize the law and enable land banks to be more impactful. They also prioritized extensive education and engagement efforts with various constituencies to build in-state knowledge of and support for land banks as critical tools for COVID-19 recovery and equitable development. Community Progress helped key leaders develop a comprehensive reform bill to modernize and optimize Indiana’s 2016 Land Bank Act. Some of the recommendations were included in a scaled-down reform proposal that was introduced in the 2022 legislative session. Leaders will continue to advocate for introduction and passage of the comprehensive reform package in 2023.

Missouri: Legal Services of Eastern Missouri
Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, with support from a coalition of local partners, sought to amend the state’s existing land bank enabling legislation to allow St. Louis County, which contains 88 municipalities, to create a land bank. Recognizing such reforms could benefit communities across the state, this impressive coalition of stakeholders from St. Louis County decided to draft comprehensive statewide land bank legislation and more equitable and efficient property tax enforcement legislation. Both bills were introduced in 2022, with a goal to pass these systemic reforms in 2023. The group also focused on educational outreach efforts and resource development to ensure critical information on the tax system and land banking are accessible throughout the region.

Illinois: Central Illinois Land Bank Authority (CILBA)
Land banks in Illinois exist due to strong home-rule authority in the state, and not state enabling land bank legislation. For this reason, only a few land banks exist in the state and vary considerably as it pertains to power, structure, and focus. This LBIS engagement with CILBA provided an opportunity to conduct a comprehensive legislative review with partners from across the state to consider state enabling land bank legislation and other identify opportunities to strengthen the systems that affect VAD properties. Community Progress supported community meetings with local leaders and stakeholders in Central Illinois and engaged state officials and legislators in conversation on reforms. However, there are many special interests (tax lien investors and real estate sector) who are fiercely opposed to even the most basic reforms. Community Progress continues to support a delegation of leaders from communities across Illinois who participated in Vacant Property Leadership Institute, and have identified top reform priorities, including statewide land bank legislation, that will enable communities to more equitably and effectively address the vacant and abandoned properties that harm neighbors and neighborhoods.

Local Land Bank Support

Pennsylvania: City of Meadville
In Meadville, Pennsylvania, the Meadville Redevelopment Authority was interested examining the merits of forming a land bank in accordance with Pennsylvania’s 2012 Land Bank Act. Community Progress facilitated discussions with local stakeholders and provided general education. Critical information on existing tools to address VAD properties allowable in PA was also documented, along with recommendations for the Meadville Redevelopment Authority to contemplate as they work to determine if a land bank is the appropriate tool to address community needs.

Maryland: Baltimore City Land Bank Workgroup and Fight Blight B’more
Baltimore City has historically struggled with large inventories of vacant and abandoned properties. Through LBIS, Community Progress provided technical support to Baltimore stakeholders in their pursuit of developing a land bank. A $20,000 Inclusivity Grant was also awarded as part of the scholarship to a Black-led organization, Fight Blight B’More, to support community education and engagement around the systems that contribute to VAD properties and policy solutions that can lead to more equitable communities.

Program Successes

Three comprehensive land bank reform bills introduced in three states (Indiana, Alabama, and Missouri)
Complementary reform bills on code enforcement and tax enforcement included in two states (Alabama and Missouri)
Bipartisan champions for reform bills in three states, committed to push bills forward in 2023 (Indiana, Alabama, and Missouri)
Statewide cross-sector coalitions activated in four states (Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, and Missouri)
More than 500 stakeholders and decision-makers engaged across six states, and leadership infrastructure supported and mentored to continue ongoing education
Local stakeholders have more knowledge about what’s needed for successful land banking, and how land banks can be part of long-term recovery from COVID-19
New Indiana land banks under development in rural southwest (seven-county regional land bank) and the City of South Bend

Why Land Banks, And Why Now?

Land banks are flexible, nimble public entities endowed with special powers by state legislation that can acquire, hold, and then steward large inventories of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties to productive reuses that support equitable community development and improve neighborhood resiliency consistent with local priorities and needs. Land banks have proven critical community development tools in a range of geographies and under varying conditions, whether to help with recovery efforts in the wake of economic or national disasters or to support equitable development in neighborhoods that struggle under the weight of decades of chronic disinvestment and unjust policies.

Following the Great Recession, the national land bank field exploded, with more than a dozen states passing enabling legislation that allowed, to varying degrees and unique to each state, for the creation of local, county, and regional land banks. There are more than 200 land banks currently in operation across the country. While there are land banks operating in all regions across the country, approximately 75% of all land banks are located in just five states: Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

Today, another national crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, is not only threatening public health, but also disrupting real estate markets, household security, and neighborhood vitality—and doing so with a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Over the next few years, it is expected that state and local leaders will again turn to land banks to help minimize the harms of vacant, distressed properties and to assist in an equitable recovery.

The disruptions caused by COVID-19 are not isolated to one corner of the country, thus there is a need for the national land bank movement to expand geographically. There is also a need to support and accelerate the evolution of the land bank movement, including the transition of these important public entities from playing a transactional role at the fringe of community development to playing a transformative role at the center of equitable development and community resiliency initiatives.

In the coming years, communities will have a number of urgent priorities when it comes to land use and housing issues: seeking to hold together neighborhoods and households hit hard by COVID-19; rethinking neighborhood investments through the lens of racial equity; acting on the promise of inclusive neighborhoods to ensure households of all incomes have access to quality, affordable housing and economic opportunities; and planning for resiliency in the face of climate change threats. Across all of these needs, land banks may be called on more than ever.

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