Create alternative to short sales through Land Bank

Stabilization efforts in the neighborhood, including NSP but also other DHED programs, lack the necessary tools to deal with the market disruptors that depress local property values. The newly established Cook County Land Bank is a promising opportunity to obtain properties through donations, tax delinquency, intergovernmental transfer and purchase. One important step is to actively seek the elimination of short sales that push down appraised values and make renovation harder. The Land Bank can accept these properties through donations or alternative arrangements to the short sale process.

Perform traditional long-term land banking

Another step, which is an explicit goal of the Land Bank, is to procure and hold land in Woodlawn and set clear signals to the market that the land will not be developed anytime soon. This prevents the threat of new construction from intimidating housing renovators. The Land Bank would serve as a much better manager of the land and buildings for the Building Department than when it undergoes demolition and city ownership, given that the Land Bank actively plans for how each vacant building or newly leveled lot will be used.