How Land Banks Help Eliminate Blight
By ELIZABETH HERSH, Executive Director, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania
Published: October 15, 2014
This past summer, I participated in Pennsylvania's second annual Land Bank Summit in Hershey, a one-day information-sharing and brainstorming session sponsored by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Association of Housing and Redevelopment Authorities. Participants from every part of the state -- from Pittston to Pittsburgh -- were on hand to discuss plans currently under way in many communities, including Erie, to create land banks as a new resource for combating blight.
What is a land bank? It's not a new organization -- it's simply a new tool that makes it easier for cities and towns to systematically remove problem properties from an endless cycle of vacancy, abandonment and tax foreclosure and return them to productive use. As a land bank jurisdiction, a municipality or county can remove liens from tax-delinquent properties and convey them to responsible developers.
Land bank services can be administered by the staff of an existing municipal or county redevelopment authority or community development department. There's no need to create a new public agency or nonprofit organization in order to make use of this resource.
So what's the difference between land bank services and those that are currently managed by existing government agencies? As a land bank jurisdiction, a city or county can expand its blight-fighting capability in two ways: by acquiring tax-delinquent properties through direct purchase from the county tax claim bureau; and by expediting the "quiet title" process in order to more readily remove property liens and convey buildings and lots with clear title to capable developers.
Land bank activity does not include the use of eminent domain -- which is specifically excluded from the state enabling legislation -- and land bank real estate transactions must support and be consistent with city and county policies and neighborhood plans.
The Housing Alliance is very pleased to be working with the Erie Redevelopment Authority in drafting a business plan for a proposed Erie Land Bank, with funding support provided in part by the Nonprofit Partnership. Our primary goal is to provide interested citizens and their representatives in government agencies and civic organizations with information that can help them determine whether and how the incorporation of a land bank would add value to current blight elimination and reinvestment strategies.We're looking forward to continued dialogue about this new opportunity and its potential benefits for Erie.
Interested in more information about land banks? Check out a new online resource, the PA Blight Library, at