Transforming Michigan’s Blighted Communities
Following the recession, many of Michigan’s cities continue to face blight that ultimately hinders community development and prosperity. However, local officials and motivated residents throughout the state have recognized blight as an opportunity to improve neighborhoods, resulting in projects similar to Mt. Pleasant’s Tree Street Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.
On the first day of Capital Conference, Payton Heins from the Center for Community Progress, Robert Linn from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and Chris Lussier from the City of Battle Creek teamed up to discuss how local officials can transform their communities’ blighted neighborhoods into thriving spaces.
Understanding Demand
Payton Heins, program officer of Michigan Initiatives at the Center for Community Progress, explained that local officials must first establish a comprehensive understanding of an area’s home markets and their respective levels of demand. High-demand neighborhoods exhibit higher housing prices, higher levels of home ownership, and an escalated rate of structural improvements. Contrastingly, areas marked by low demand face vacancy, abandonment, low maintenance, tax delinquency, and absentee ownership.
Most importantly, Heins identified blight as only a symptom of cyclically weak demand, and emphasized that in order to create solutions, local officials must first equip themselves with an extensive array of data.
Data-Driven Decision Making
According to Heins, simply examining property values is not enough to properly determine how to handle the redevelopment of a particular neighborhood. She identified several sources of data that could paint a more robust picture of a certain area’s situation, including assessment data, deeds data, tax records, building information, and police and fire data.
Robert Linn, from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, shared the manner in which his team condenses statistics into vacancy scores, and uses data even further to develop demolition probability for properties in Detroit. Their five-point vacancy composite takes into account information like utility data, water service data, and even postal service delivery, among other things. Being able to compare different sets of neighborhood information allows local officials to observe short-term and long-term trends, and to develop more informed plans regarding how to best revitalize a neighborhood.
Planning for Prosperity
Linn went into detail regarding the Detroit Land Bank Authority’s wide array of programs that it uses to address blight concerns in one of Detroit’s many low-demand neighborhoods. Both Heins and Linn emphasized that demolition – the seemingly obvious solution for severely blighted structures – can only do so much in the long-run and may even lead to further issues like illegal dumping. Although the Land Bank does make use of demolition through the federally administered Hardest Hit Fund, they also utilize a Nuisance Abatement Program, offering building owners the opportunity to renovate or risk losing property rights for the sake of the neighborhood’s health.
The Land Bank also administers a successful auction and side lot program, and through their Community Partnership program attempts to engage non-profit groups to spur neighborhood transformation forward through rehab, deconstruction, beatification, new construction, gardens, and parks.
Community Involvement and Communication
Chris Lussier, manager of the City of Battle Creek’s Community Development team, shared thoughts regarding Battle Creek’s involvement in neighborhood revitalization, and tips to implement plans in other Michigan cities. He agreed with the importance of meaningful data and thorough plans of action, but went further to describe how vital it is that local officials communicate ongoing endeavors to their residents. “Residents will ask, ’Why was our neighborhood not chosen to have its blighted homes demolished?’” said Lussier, indicating the necessity of explaining to residents the purpose behind actions taken, and to work with residents who express interest in the process.
Each speaker felt that neighborhood revitalization is a team effort between local leaders and residents. Indeed, Battle Creek’s Minor Home Repair program does a lot to engage citizens in neighborhood stabilization efforts, offering funds to low income families in order to help them bring their homes up to code. The Detroit Land Bank Authority uses Motor City Mapping, a mobile app, to involve citizens in property surveys.
In short, local officials would do well to develop innovative ways to engage their citizens in revitalization efforts, because neighborhoods are healthier, more prosperous places to live when individuals feel a sense of responsibility and pride in their surroundings.
For more information regarding the Neighborhood Revitalization Workshop, please visit the presentation on our Capital Conference website, and take a look at the Center for Community Progress Michigan Blight Elimination Guidebook.