By DUANE M. ELLING
A successful market investment is often thought of as one that yields a financial return. A recent report suggests that the Genesee County Land Bank (GCLB) is helping the greater Flint community realize similar rewards.
“Economic Impacts of Residential Property Abandonment and the Genesee County Land Bank in Flint, Michigan” finds that the GCLB spent roughly $3.5 million between 2002 and 2005 on the rehabilitation of abandoned and foreclosed properties in and around the city. It further suggests that those activities yielded $112 million in economic returns for Mott’s hometown.
Those returns, say researchers at Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute (LPI), which conducted the study, include profits from the redevelopment and sale of properties held by the GCLB; the financial assets maintained in the community -- both among homeowners and the city -- by helping to keep habitable properties out of foreclosure and on the tax rolls; and the subsequent increase in value of adjacent homes and land.
The land bank model allows local public authorities to hold, manage and develop tax-foreclosed properties, with a focus on returning them to productive use.
Mott support for the model’s development -- including initial research that led to state legislation in support of land banks; implementation in Genesee County; and technical assistance by the GCLB to other Michigan communities interested in replicating or adapting the model -- has totaled more than $1 million since 1997.
Since its start in 2002, the GCLB has overseen the demolition of 759 structures that could not be rehabilitated and has coordinated the full renovation of 29 salvageable homes. The program has also sold more than 600 vacant lots to adjoining homeowners and helped to keep more than 1,700 properties out of foreclosure.
The LPI report suggests that such activities have helped stabilize and even increase the value of more than 26,000 residential properties in Flint. It also finds that, as of the 2006 tax year, GCLB programs had helped return more than $1.17 million in homes and land to the city’s property tax system.
The authors note that such outcomes are essential to helping the greater Flint community “restructure, redevelop and recreate value in declining neighborhood environments.” An estimated 5,000 housing units in the city are currently vacant or abandoned.
Dan Kildee, county treasurer and GCLB chairman, notes that the report’s findings help confirm the potential fiscal impact of land banks on their communities.
“This research verifies that while the ‘cost of abandonment’ of properties is quantifiable, the value of intervention can also be measured. This has important implications for future interest in -- and development of -- the land bank model.”
And while he is personally pleased to see the GCLB’s economic impacts confirmed, Kildee notes that the model’s rewards are more than financial.
“When a property is improved and returned to productive use, the morale in that neighborhood grows,” he said.
“And as surrounding properties are redeveloped, those feelings spread. Soon the entire community begins to sense the positive change under way.”
“Sparking that undercurrent of energy and hope is just one of the many benefits of the land bank model.”