Vacant Properties Research Articles

Strategy for Neighborhood with Vacant Properties in Revision of Zoning Code of Post-industrial Cities in the U.S.

Strategy for Neighborhood with Vacant Properties in Revision of Zoning Code of Post-industrial Cities in the U.S.

LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF PROPERTY TAXATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on real estate that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the real estate property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This is in contrast to a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible property. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and improvements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real property is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Real estate properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residential, commercial, industrial and vacant real property. In Israel, for example, property tax rates are double for vacant apartments versus occupied apartments.

Social Integration may Moderate the Relationship between Neighborhood Vacancy and Mental Health Outcomes: Initial Evidence from Flint, Michigan.

Long-term residence in neighborhoods is thought to promote the development and maintenance of supportive relationships and trust. These strong social ties may, however, be limited in communities in post-industrial cities characterized by high levels of vacant properties. This study aimed to examine the relationship between neighborhood vacancy and mental health with adjustment for length of residence and possible moderation by social (dis)integration in a sample of Flint, MI, residents. We found that short-term (but not long-term) increases in neighborhood vacancy were associated with poorer mental health, after adjustment for individual covariates. When considering neighborhood vacancy, length of residence and individual covariates, however, the only significant association detected was between higher social disintegration and lower wellbeing. This effect was direct and not mediated by other factors. In this way, it appears that the social conditions of neighborhoods may be important, particularly in places that have experienced declines in the built environment. In addition, we identified evidence that social integration moderates the relationship between neighborhood vacancy and mental health outcomes. The level of neighborhood vacancies had a weaker relationship to wellbeing among those with higher levels of social ties. But none of the independent variables in our study were able to predict social integration, highlighting some potential areas for future research. From these findings, we posit that establishing strong social connections can buffer residents against negative mental health outcomes, and health promotion efforts could usefully assist in maintaining social ties among neighbors.

Squatting for Survival: Precarious Housing in a Declining U.S. City

Despite severely depressed property markets, housing in declining U.S. cities can be surprisingly unaffordable for poor residents. Yet the characteristics of decline, such as abundant vacant property and constrained economic/political conditions, also provide opportunity for squatting. This article explores survival squatting—illegal occupation of property as a means for procuring suitable housing by marginalized residents. Drawing on a 4.5-year ethnography in Detroit, I examine the mechanisms by which people strategically choose squatting as a method of sheltering in the context of local conditions, and the experiences and conditions of this practice. I situate these empirical findings within a broader discussion comparing squatting and other forms of housing that have received considerable attention by researchers (e.g., shelter use, sleeping rough, doubling up). Squatting is particularly risky and unstable, and often very hidden. Substandard housing conditions prevail, and substance abuse is common. Squatting may have negative implications for child welfare, but may also provide measures of independence, self-determination, and comfort for illegal occupiers. There is a critical need for further research in this area, both to inform comprehensive housing policies and to anticipate how squatters’ well-being is impacted by other urban initiatives, such as blight demolition.

Going Beyond Zip Code: Can a Person's Address Help Us Improve Their Acute Care?

Going Beyond Zip Code: Can a Person's Address Help Us Improve Their Acute Care?

Resilience through Regeneration: The economics of repurposing vacant land with green infrastructure.

Many urban areas affected by flood disasters are also becoming increasingly ecologically and socially fragmented due to the accumulation of vacant properties. While redevelopment is often viewed as the primary objective in regenerating vacant properties, they can also potentially provide ecological and hydrological land uses. Rather than chasing development- based incentives for regenerating vacant lots in high flood-risk communities, a balance should be sought between new developmental land uses and green infrastructure to help counteract stormwater runoff and flood effects, or "Resilience through Regeneration." This paper uses landscape performance measures to evaluate the economic and hydrologic performance of green infrastructure regeneration projects for three marginalized neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, USA. Each project site is characterized by excessive vacant lots and flood issues. Results suggest that, when using green infrastructure to regenerate vacant properties, 1) flood risk continually decreases, 2) upfront economic costs increase in the short term (when compared to conventional development), and 3) the long-term economic return on investment is much higher.

The Pricing of Power Lines: A Geospatial Approach to Measuring Residential Property Values

The valuation of power lines is a complex phenomenon. Using a sample of 5,455 vacant lots sold in Pickens County, South Carolina, we uncover substantive pricing discounts of 44.9% for properties adjacent to power lines, and a pricing discount of 17.9% for non-adjacent vacant properties up to 1,000 feet away from the power lines. Applying four different geospatial approaches—buffer zones, straight line distance, viewshed analysis, and tower visibility—we find that high-voltage transmission line (HVTL) pricing models should account for both proximity and visibility to reflect location-specific variations in pricing.

Practical study on utilization of vacant properties at disaster area by nuclear power accident

Practical study on utilization of vacant properties at disaster area by nuclear power accident

Rehabilitation of Vacant Properties through Receivership/Conservatorship in the USA

Rehabilitation of Vacant Properties through Receivership/Conservatorship in the USA

Living labs and vacancy in the neoliberal city

This paper evaluates smart city (SC) initiatives in the context of re-using vacant property, focusing on the role of living labs (LL). LL utilise Lo-Fi technologies to foster local digital innovation and support community-focused civic hacking, running various kinds of workshops and engaging with local citizens to co-create digital interventions and apps aimed at ‘solving’ local issues. Five approaches to LL are outlined and discussed in relation to vacancy and gentrification: pop-up initiatives, university-led activities, community organised venues/activities, citizen sensing and crowdsourcing, and tech-led regeneration initiatives. Notwithstanding the potential for generating temporary and independent spaces for transferring digital competences and increasing citizens' participation in the SC, we argue LL foster largely a form of participation framed within a model of civic stewardship for ‘smart citizens’. While presented as horizontal, open, and participative, LL and civic hacking are rooted often in pragmatic and paternalistic discourses and practices related to the production of a creative economy and a technocratic version of SC. As such, by encouraging a particular kind of re-use of vacant space, LLs are used actively to bolster the Smart City discourse, as part of the more general neoliberalization of urban political economy. We discuss these approaches and issues generally, drawing on previous fieldwork and with respect to a case study of Dublin, Ireland.

DATA-DRIVEN RIGHTSIZING: INTEGRATING PRESERVATION INTO THE LEGACY CITIES LANDSCAPE

Abstract. Legacy cities, whose built environments are undergoing transformations due to population loss, are at a critical juncture in their urban history and the historic preservation field has an important role to play. Rapid mobile surveys provide an opportunity for data collection that expands beyond traditional historic criteria, and positions preservationists to be proactive decision-makers and to align with multi-disciplinary partners. Rapid mobile surveys are being utilized in conjunction with in-depth data analysis of comprehensive livability metrics at the parcel, neighborhood, and citywide levels to develop recommendations for reactivating vacant properties. Historic preservationists are spearheading these efforts through a tool called Relocal, which uses 70–85 distinct metrics and a community priority survey to generate parcel-level recommendations for every vacant lot and vacant building in the areas in which it is applied. Local volunteer-led rapid mobile surveys are key to gathering on-the-ground, real-time metrics that serve as Relocal’s foundation. These new survey techniques generate usable data sets for historic preservation practitioners, land banks, planners, and other entities to inform strategic rightsizing decisions across legacy cities.

Landscape care of urban vacant properties and implications for health and safety: Lessons from photovoice

Care of vacant properties in urban environments is of particular interest to planners and residents alike. We report on a photovoice project completed by community leaders, researchers, and residents in two Detroit neighborhoods experiencing longtime systemic disinvestment. Participants photographed and discussed examples of care in a series of three focus groups in each neighborhood. Analyses highlight how acts of landscape care and visible cues to care contribute to changes in physical and social environments, and explore various links to health. We suggest theoretical and practical applications of residents’ perspectives on landscape care and identify implications for well-being and neighborhood stability.

The urban geographical imagination in the age of Big Data

This paper explores the variety of ways that emerging sources of (big) data are being used to re-conceptualize the city, and how these understandings of what the urban is shapes the design of interventions into it. Drawing on work on the performativity of economics, this paper uses two vignettes of the ‘new urban science’ and municipal vacant property mapping in order to argue that the mobilization of Big Data in the urban context doesn’t necessarily produce a single, greater understanding of the city as it actually is, but rather a highly variegated series of essentialized understandings of the city that render it knowable, governable and intervene-able. Through the construction of new, data-driven urban geographical imaginaries, these projects have opened up the space for urban interventions that work to depoliticize urban injustices and valorize new kinds of technical expertise as the means of going about solving these problems, opening up new possibilities for a remaking of urban space in the image of these sociotechnical paradigms. Ultimately, this paper argues that despite the importance of Big Data, as both a discourse and practice, to emerging forms of urban research and management, there is no singular or universal understanding of the urban that is promoted or developed through the application of these new sources of data, which in turn opens up meaningful possibilities for developing alternative uses of Big Data for understanding and intervening in the city in more emancipatory ways.

Collective action in implementing top-down land policy: The case of Chengdu, China

Rapid urbanization in China has led to the increasing scarcity of land suitable and available for construction. Concurrently, rural depopulation has resulted in many vacant properties, including farmhouses and buildings. In order to address this issue, a national land transfer policy has been implemented since the early 2000s in which vacant rural properties are returned to agriculture in return for similar areas of peri-urban land being released for construction. While there have been many different approaches to policy implementation, most commentators agree that successful schemes are characterized by the involvement of local people. As yet, however, there has been little research into how such local collective action is organized, and whether it is really possible to address top-down policies through local, bottom-up, action. Based on a case study of the earliest pilot program in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, we seek to demonstrate that the top-down nature of China’s land transfer policy does not mean that it is necessarily best implemented in a top-down manner. Indeed, we suggest that effective collective action is crucial to the realization of such policies. In particular, the case study indicates that with the empowerment of villagers to participate in the policy process it is possible to achieve a broad consensus on the best approach to addressing the problems, with community interests protected and properly monitoring. In offering a new way of understanding collective action, we conclude that even in cases where a top-down approach is imposed, communities can be empowered to act collectively in implementing the policy from the bottom-up.

Information requirements to create public value: sharing and opening data to address urban blight

PurposeBlighted and vacant properties represent a persistent and costly problem for cities and local governments throughout the USA. The purpose of this paper is to identify data needs and requirements for value creation in the context of urban blight. The main assumption is that sharing and opening data through a robust and effective code enforcement program will facilitate more informed management, mitigation and remediation of blighted and vacant properties. Code enforcement programs must be grounded on organizational and technical infrastructures that enable data sharing and value creation for the city and the communities that share its space.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the information needs and realities of a city’s code enforcement environment are described, based on data gathered through a series of workshops and focus groups with a range of stakeholders, which included city government departments, police, fire, bank representatives, realtors and community groups.FindingsThe analysis reveals key data elements that could potentially help to build a code enforcement program to better manage the cycles and costs of urban blight. Although some of these data elements already exist, and are public, they are not easily accessible to key stakeholders. The paper ends with sets of short-term and long-term recommendations for establishing an information-sharing infrastructure, which would serve as the main conduit for exchanging code enforcement data among a number of city government departments and the public that may play a role in managing urban blight and its consequences.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors are connecting extant literature on sharing and opening data with literature on the creation of public value. They argue that sharing and opening government data constitute effective ways of managing the costs and cycles of urban blight while creating value. As a result of an initial assessment of data and information requirements, the authors also point to specific data and its potential value from stakeholder perspective.

人口減少都市における総合計画に基づく荒廃除去活動の実践に関する考察

Recent year, vacant properties has become a severe problem in Japan. Some of these properties in bad condition are called “blight” and they bring negative affect to urban environment. Japanese government formulated new law to demolish designated old and dangerous vacant houses. But this policy is based only on grade of damage and created without the perspectives of urban planning and design. Japanese local governments should create more comprehensive way to deal with such “blights” when financial and human resources are limited. This paper aim to clarify the effective planning methodology to manage huge amount of blights in the city. We focus on the city of Flint, MI one of the most famous shrinking cities in the United States. Flint has experienced the profound population decline since the end of 1970s and suffered from huge amount of vacant properties. In 2013, city government formulated a new master plan named “Master Plan for a Sustainable Flint”. They introduced new place type called Green Innovation that is designated to areas with heavy vacancy. After the master plan approval, the city of Flint and Genesee County Land Bank Authority(GCLBA), and some of the CDCs tried to plan a new framework for the “blight elimination” and aligned their activities based on the masterplan. The city of Flint planned the Blight Elimination Framework(BEF) to comprehensively manage huge amount of blights in the city areas. They focused on each stakeholder's activities and the place types defined by the master plan. They categorized 7 activities (waste removal, boarding, demolition, mowing, vacant lot reuse, building rehabilitation and redevelopment, code enforcement) to manage blight and allocate the relevance of each stakeholder. Maximally, they can save 21.7 million dollars (29% of the cost estimated without this framework) by the efforts based on this framework. GCLBA created the “Decision-Making Guide(DMG)” to align property sales based on the master plan. GCLBA has sold vacant properties based on each property's situation, such as condition of site boundary and adjacent house ownership. With the GMG, it became possible for GCLBA to consider the future land use and desirable physical environment logically. GCLBA can also contribute to lead the transformation for future land use by integration of individual property sales based on DMG. There are two major CDCs in Flint. Salem Housing shifted their activities to community engagement because of the difficulty of housing development in low demand housing market after 2000s. On the other hand, Genesee County Habitat for Humanity (GCHFH) aligned their activities based on the master plan. GCHFH converted the land uses from housing to greenery land uses such as pocket parks and pavilions in several Green Neighborhood area designated by the master plan. As a result, the following points are suggested. 1) The city of Flint faces the financial gaps between the cost needed for blight elimination and the actual manageable budget. They planned comprehensive blight elimination framework to reduce the cost for blight elimination. The framework is to integrate each stakeholder's activities and is expected to reduce the cost by 29% from the cost estimated initially. 2) GCLBA created Decision-Making Guide to convert the current land use to future land use planned by the master plan. This guide is considered useful because it helps to achieve integration of GCLBA's individual property sales. 3) CDCs in Flint are facing difficulty to keep their work after financial crisis of the 2000s and they had changed the direction of their work. GCHFH has aligned their activities based on the master plan and contributes to convert current land use to desirable land use.

人口減少都市における縮退型都市計画の導入プロセスに関する研究

Recent year, vacant properties and its negative effects have become severe issues in Japan. Japan government has formulated new law to demolish dilapidated houses, but its effectiveness is limited against vacant properties issue. On the other hand, in the United States, there are some cities trying to create “Shrinking” master plan from the middle of 2000s, especially in Michigan and other Rust Belt cities. In the urban shrinkage, it is difficult to achieve consensus on the shrinking city policy between the government and local residents, because there are some detriments such as relocation, cutting of infrastructures and public services. The Purpose of this study is to clarify the methodology for consensus building in the planning process of master plan and zoning code in U.S. shrinking cities. The city of Flint, MI is the one of the shrinking cities in the United States. Flint has experienced the profound population decline since the end of 1970s. They have lost 48% population in 50 years and suffered from huge amount of vacant properties. In 2013, the city of Flint started to update the master plan using federal grant and the support of local urban planners from Genesee County Land Bank Authority and the foundation. A lot of residents living in Flint were engaged in this process. Finally, an updated master plan named “Master Plan for A Sustainable Flint” was completed in 2013 introducing a new zoning code called Green Innovation (GI) Area. After that, the city of Flint started to discuss the zoning code based on the updated master plan. We focus on the success factors of those processes, and the following points are suggested. 1) In the case of Flint, the city government got a lot of agreement from residents by using community engagement process. To get enough agreement from public, the city involved a lot of residents and local groups in housing assessment and workshops. As the result, it did work as educational process for the public to understand the current situation of the city and importance of urban planning. 2) Green Innovation area is the zoning that supports neighborhood stabilization for the residents in the short-term, and in the long-term, it contributes for cost reduction for the government. The GI area is a flexible zone. It could be a zone to adopt the reinvestment, if not, it could be a green field. 3) On the other hand, there are difficulties to introduce land use regulation by zoning code ordinance, especially GI area. Because it would violate existing residents' right to housing. It means that it is difficult to limit people's right to build houses in high vacancy area or the area with low land value, even if it locates in the shrinking cities. 4) But the government can respond to that concerns by administrative procedure working with planning commission. For existing residents, the city of Flint decided to give the permission to rebuild the house, if the house was located in GI area. After that, the city also tried to create criteria to give permission for new single family housing development in GI areas. But this attempt was failed because of the opposition of local politicians. As a result, the city decided to use the criteria of GN areas as criteria for permission of new housing development in GI areas. After the master plan approval, for GCLBA and some CDCs and Local groups, it became possible to align their work with the master plan and spend their resources effectively. Master plan is shared broadly and utilized as a useful framework in Flint.

LEGAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF PROPERTY TAXES

A property tax (or millage tax) is a levy on property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdictions may tax the same property. This is in contrast to a rent and mortgage tax, which is based on a percentage of the rent or mortgage value. There are four broad types of property: land, improvements to land (immovable man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable man-made objects), and intangible prop-erty. Real property (also called real estate or realty) means the combination of land and improvements. Under a property tax system, the government requires and/or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. Forms of property tax used vary among countries and jurisdictions. Real property is often taxed based on its classification. Classification is the grouping of properties based on similar use. Properties in different classes are taxed at different rates. Examples of different classes of property are residen-tial, commercial, industrial and vacant real property. A special assessment tax is sometimes confused with property tax. These are two distinct forms of taxation: one (ad valorem tax) relies upon the fair market value of the property being taxed for justification, and the other (special assessment) relies upon a special enhance-ment called a “benefit” for its justification

Have Distressed Neighborhoods Recovered? Evidence from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program

Abstract During the 2007–2009 housing crisis, concentrations of foreclosed and vacant properties created severe blight in many cities and neighborhoods. The federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) was established to help mitigate distress in hard-hit areas by funding the rehabilitation or demolition of troubled properties. This paper analyzes housing market changes in areas that received investments during the second round of NSP funding, focusing on seven large urban counties. Grantees used NSP to invest in census tracts with high rates of distressed and vacant properties, and tracts that had previously received other housing subsidies. The median NSP tract received quite sparse investment, relative to the overall housing stock and the initial levels of distress. Analysis of housing market outcomes indicates the recovery has been uneven across counties and neighborhoods. In a few counties, there is some evidence that NSP2 activity is correlated with improved housing outcomes, primarily increased sales volume.

Have distressed neighborhoods recovered? Evidence from the neighborhood stabilization program

During the 2007–2009 housing crisis, concentrations of foreclosed and vacant properties created severe blight in many cities and neighborhoods. The federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) was established to help mitigate distress in hard-hit areas by funding the rehabilitation or demolition of troubled properties. This paper analyzes housing market changes in areas that received investments during the second round of NSP funding, focusing on seven large urban counties. Grantees used NSP to invest in census tracts with high rates of distressed and vacant properties, and tracts that had previously received other housing subsidies. The median NSP tract received quite sparse investment, relative to the overall housing stock and the initial levels of distress. Analysis of housing market outcomes indicates the recovery has been uneven across counties and neighborhoods. In a few counties, there is some evidence that NSP2 activity is correlated with improved housing outcomes, primarily increased sales volume.