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Experts tell committee a state land bank could speed reuse of vacant and contaminated properties and support housing production
Summary
Witnesses from Michigan and the consulting team told the House General & Housing Committee that a statewide land bank could provide capacity, hold title quickly, manage brownfields and support mixed-income housing projects; they urged a study/action plan to define funding and governance.
Jim Tishler, development director of the Michigan Land Bank Authority, told the committee that state-level land banks can play multiple roles: take title to surplus or problem properties, hold and ready parcels for redevelopment, serve as a repository of last resort for contaminated sites, and support local land banks that lack capacity.
Tishler said the number-one challenge he sees nationwide is capacity — local governments often lack staff, budget and time to carry out cleanup, due diligence and project management. “There is simply not enough budget, there’s not enough personnel allocation and not enough time to be able to service the activities that are so vital in order to move properties to productive reuse,” he said.
He described legal…
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