U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced the Neighborhood Revitalization and Land Banking Act to help public land banks acquire blighted properties.

The Neighborhood Revitalization and Land Banking Act would:

For more information, please click here

A recent report from WRAL discusses a North Carolina Supreme Court case about “whether racism has influenced Kinston leaders’ foreclosure efforts could have implications for the power of local governments across the state.”

So far courts have agreed that Kinston have not engaged in any discriminatory behavior, in what it described as efforts to clean up blighted areas of town.

As discussed in the article, the concerns focus on the municipal process and its appeals process, and where additional remedies can be sought.

For more information, please click here.

MuniReg has never been a proponent of “advertising vacancy“. For severely dilapidated properties, that are clearly abandoned, posting for example a “Red X” doesn’t bring unwarranted attention.

Other approaches, such as placards on the door or windows, can bring undesired attention for properties that may not appear vacant to the criminal element driving down the block scoping its next target.

While there is an increase in transparency/”open government” and benefits for sharing vacancy information, (developers, non-profits etc.) Those can be handled individually.

Las Cruces NM Nuisance Abatement Team’s (NAT) FAQ page has a simple but direct and logical response to “Am I able to obtain a current list of vacant and abandoned properties?”

“Until recently, the NAT had published a map and list of current vacant and abandoned properties. The map and list have been removed from public view to protect the property from being subject to theft and fires and to prevent intruders.”

Well said!

To view the Las Cruces NAT FAQ page, please click here