Property-Specific Approaches

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Necessity of an official definition

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The lack of an official definition or survey of vacant and abandoned land and properties complicates efforts to understand the extent of the problem. The vacant land label is given to many different types of utilized or underutilized parcels – perimeter agricultural or uncultivated land; recently razed land; derelict land; land with abandoned buildings and structures; brownfields; greenfields. Vacant land within cities may even include small or irregular greenfield parcels remaining from earlier development, or parcels of land on which it is difficult to build, such as those on steep grades or flood plains. No uniform standard exists for how long a property must remain unoccupied to be considered abandoned. A 1998 survey of cities finds a range from 60 days to 120 days or longer. The U.S. General Accounting Office applies the term to "a building or lot that has been vacant for two years or more".

What do we know about the amount of vacant urban land and abandoned structures in many cities, meanwhile, clearly indicates that the current set of tools being applied at the local level remains deficient. And yet, addressing the issue of vacant and abandoned land and structures is not only the responsibility of localities. State governments play an important role as well. In many cases, the ability to overcome the problems associated with vacant properties and convert them to productive use requires legislative powers that are found only at the state level. These include, for example, the use of eminent domain power, the implementation of financing tools.

Fortunately, some states have successfully undertaken legislative reforms to support urban vacant land redevelopment. The law provides a model state agenda for urban land reform that, if pursued, would provide cities the resources they need to turn problem properties into tax-generating assets.

The legislative reforms and approaches that have been pioneered by the most proactive states, will promote urban land development across the nation by helping all states become aware of the best practices available.

Three strategies, to start with, contribute directly to the redevelopment of vacant or abandoned properties. These tools focus on the acquisition and disposal of property. These include: (1) tax lien foreclosure; (2) eminent domain powers and condemnation or acquisition of blighted properties; and (3) land banks and community land trusts.

A key first area of state support of redevelopment involves a state's framework for the enforcement of property tax collection. Properties that become tax delinquent reduce public revenues and contribute to neighborhood deterioration. The failure to pay property taxes typically results from one of three causes: (1) property owner's inability to pay their annual tax during depressed economic conditions; (2) public protest over property tax rates that are perceived to be too high: and (3) owner's efforts to maximize the income they receive from their property by neglecting tax payments. The third cause is more typical of property owners who are investors and plan to eventually abandon their property, and more common in major urban areas. Tax delinquency can be viewed as an "early warning system to municipalities that there are market problems with particular properties".

The tax lien foreclosure process allows cities to return tax delinquent vacant land and abandoned structures to productive use. Their ability to do so is greatly influenced at the state level by the particular property tax collection enforcement system that has been legally authorized. These systems vary from state to state because, historically, states retain great autonomy to determine their individual methods of property tax collection and enforcement.

State laws set the parameters for how local governments deal with their tax delinquent properties, either helping or hindering the process. Massachusetts, for example, has no specific deadlines for notifying owners or responding to foreclosure, and the foreclosure process can take years. Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas, by contrast, have all adopted legislative reforms in recent years that improve сities' ability to expedite foreclosure on properties and convert them back into productive use. Michigan's legislation shortens the foreclosure process from what could take five years to one-half years, and create insurable property titles through judicial action.

States can also be divided into three categories according to whether they (1) allow lien enforcement and property sale without a judicial process; (2) require judicial involvement at the sale or termination of the redemption period; or (3) permit enforcement of property tax liens through a judicial or non-judicial process.

A judicial tax enforcement proceeding - a proceeding that relies on the court system - is superior for several reasons. Such a proceeding provides a permanent public record and provides an opportunity for a hearing, an opportunity currently unavailable under most tax lien enforcement system. In other words, the process produces a marketable property title that a title insurance company would be willing to insure. In this way, the proceeding resolves one of the major problems to transferring and financing properties that cities seek to redevelop.

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