Friday, February 28, 2025, 2:07AM |  42°
MENU
Advertisement
1
MORE

Say yes to a land bank

Say yes to a land bank

Pittsburgh would benefit greatly from a well-designed land bank, argues Liz Hersh of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania

It is time for Pittsburgh to create a local land bank.

Started with fanfare but lost in the downward spiral of the last administration, Pittsburgh’s Land Recycling Task Force (www.pittsburghpa.gov/​landrecycling/) thoroughly documented the need, potential and positive economics of land banking. As with the current proposed ordinance, however, its recommendations were quietly held. Pittsburgh’s land bank effort, past and present, has suffered from a lack of public information and constructive debate. That is a missed opportunity.

Land banking is worth pursuing. It is a game changer.

Advertisement

Like most cities in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh’s progress is impeded by blight and byabandonment. It lacks a modern, efficient system for recycling unused property at scale and getting it back onto the market and productive reuse. The goal of a land bank is to take cancerous blight and create a system to get abandoned properties clear title, publicly inventoried and marketed for reuse by neighbors, community groups, developers or Realtors.

Many of Pittsburgh’s unused properties would become new affordable homes, stores or other businesses; green infrastructure for storm water management; urban gardens or pocket parks; undeveloped hillsides no longer considered suitable for building or side-yards that would increase the value of existing homes.

The ultimate use of these properties and who gets to decide is, of course, the heart of the matter and why land banks are worth fighting about. On the one hand, they bring the power to raise fallow land to new use. On the other, there is the potential for abuse that frightens community advocates whose history with urban renewal has understandably bred mistrust.

Pittsburgh has the opportunity to learn from the experience of land banks in Ohio, Michigan and New York and to adopt national best practices.

Advertisement

A land bank should maximize and institutionalize transparency and accountability to the community, with strong community representation on its board, an open planning process to determine policies and set priorities, strict adherence to sunshine and ethics laws, and public input into property disposition policies within the context of an overall redevelopment plan.

Every effort should be made to support local neighborhood aspirations and organizations. People who have stayed in and sustained neighborhoods in times of decline should see some direct benefits. And a big picture of land use in whole neighborhoods and the entire city should be adopted to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Good land banking is aligned with fair and uniform property tax collection that identifies in advance the properties of homeowners facing hardships and offers them support. Second- and third-generations and surviving spouses in family homes may need help to gain clear title and make necessary upgrades to market properties and/​or to allow their continued residence. Even working homeowners often cannot afford basic legal services. Support should be coupled with accountability.

A land bank can be an important tool that benefits all residents by raising property values, increasing green space and making land more available to those who have a stake in its reuse. But it is only a tool. Like any other, it is only as effective as those who wield it.

Liz Hersh is executive director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, an advocacy organization that works to make sure every Pennsylvanian has a home, especially those with low incomes (www.housingalliancepa.org,).

First Published: March 23, 2014, 1:26 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bubba Chandler delivers in the third inning of a spring training baseball game against the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.
1
sports
3 takeaways from Pirates’ lopsided spring training victory over Twins
An example of a Real ID-compliant non-commercial driver's license in Pennsylvania.
2
news
The Real ID deadline is approaching. Here's what Pennsylvanians should know.
FILE - Demonstrators protest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) layoffs in front of the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Feb. 18, 2025.
3
news
Judge finds mass firings of federal probationary workers to likely be unlawful
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, left, and general manager Omar Khan stand on the field before an NFL football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Pittsburgh.
4
sports
2025 NFL salary cap will rise to $279 million. Here's what that means for the Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Arthur Smith walks off the field after losing to the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore Ravens won 28-14.
5
sports
Joe Starkey: Was Steelers GM Omar Khan kidding with his Arthur Smith comments?
Advertisement
LATEST opinion
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story