Cook County Board of Commissioners, South Suburban Mayors & Managers Assn.

State of Illinois, Cook County

In Cook County, there are 214,000 housing units vacant.  The new land bank will work to acquire properties, manage them, and return them to productive use. Land banking is a flexible tool that can be shaped to meet the needs of each participating community. In stronger market areas, land banks can facilitate immediate housing development or redevelopment, or commercial or industrial growth by speeding the transfer of vacant property to new owners, collaborating with individuals and organizations to renovate viable properties and assembling larger sites for private redevelopment. In harder hit communities, land banks provide a degree of stability that plants the seeds for economic revitalization in the near- or mid-term. In the hardest hit communities, land banks implement strategies that stop the downward spiral that, if left unchecked, would leave them decimated for generations. In such communities, demolition of nuisance properties may be the best short-term strategy, eliminating properties that drag down property values and promote blight. When the most troubled buildings have been cleared, the land can be used for new safe play areas or expanded side- or backyards. Cleared land also provides opportunities for urban agriculture and community-based food system practitioners to secure the access to land that is so essential to nurturing local food systems. Targeted demolition has proven to be an essential part of neighborhood stabilization efforts and lays the foundation for revitalization.