Land blank

Blight a concern as vacant lots explode

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The houses sit side by side on Bluff Street, a block north of Oakland Avenue near downtown. Their lots are overgrown with trees and weeds and trash. The windows are boarded up. Inside the houses are in even worse condition. In one, the ceiling is caving in and the walls are scarred with water stains. The other has been gutted to the wood frame. Two City of Lansing recycling carts sit in front of the buildings, stinking from the rotting garbage.

The properties are among the approximately 250 structures slated for demolition this summer in Lansing. All are owned by the Ingham County Land Bank, and each is beyond repair, says Eric Schertzing, chairman of the land bank and Ingham County treasurer.

“You have to be brutal about the expenses,” he says.

At the height of the housing crisis, the Land Bank received federal dollars to renovate properties that could be sold to new owners. The remodeled property would then go back on the tax rolls, providing needed revenue for the city.

But it lost money — about $30,000 — on each house it renovated, and combined with the decline in federal funds, the Land Bank has shifted strategies. Now the issue is blight, which lowers property values and depresses neighborhoods. Removing old houses can have a positive impact on the values of the neighborhood, Schertzing says. Some funding is available for this initiative.

“There are studies around the country that show removing blight does unlock value in the surrounding properties,” he says.

As of Feb. 28, the Land Bank had an inventory of 1,129 properties in the county. Eighty percent of those are located in Lansing. Of those, 23 are for sale. There are also 631 empty lots, about 500 in Lansing, he said.

Now, the Land Bank is preparing — with the help of blight removal grant funds — to tear down another 250 or so properties in the city limits. It will leave holes in neighborhoods throughout the city. In some neighborhoods, like the east side and the near west side, where housing is built tightly together, those gaps will be very noticeable. On the south side, where properties are not as densely packed, the openings will not be as obvious to the neighborhood’s character.

Once you have an empty lot, however, the question becomes —what next?

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” said Schertzing.

“With respect to the ‘lots’ being a challenge; I prefer to view them as opportunities,” says Bob Johnson, director of the City of Lansing’s Planning and Neighborhood Development Department. “As you are aware, the lots are distributed throughout the city; while some are in closer proximity to others, the majority are scattered. We work very closely with the Ingham County Land Bank Fast Track Authority as we explore the repurposing of the vacant lots.”

“Obviously the administration supports the demolition of Land Bank properties that cannot be saved,” said Randy Hannan, a spokesman for Mayor Virg Bernero. “We’ve been partnering with them for years to do exactly that. Empty lots that result from demolition present an opportunity for creative placemaking in our neighborhoods, including amenities like greenspace and additional community gardens.”

Each lot costs the land bank about $400 a year to maintain — mowing the lawn, shoveling sidewalks and generally preventing the empty lot from becoming an eyesore.

The agency is renting some lots out for “urban agriculture,” which provides some income to offset upkeep costs. Urban farmers pay $10 to rent the local lot — and agree to maintain the grass and sidewalks — shifting the burden from the Land Bank to the individual.

Some lots will be "naturalized," Schertzing said. The city’s recently adopted master parks plan does the same thing with some city parks in an effort to reduce the burden and cost of maintaining the parks. Naturalization is a managed process by which a property is allowed to revert to some semblance of what it would have been had it not been developed. Such a move would not necessarily become a weed-choked place. The naturalization would be managed, allowing the Land Bank and others to bring in native species of plants, creating a minibiome in the middle of a neighborhood.

Schertzing can see new housing on some properties. He imagines, for example, the two properties on Bluff Street having duplexes built on them, once the decaying houses are removed.

“This is very near the state Capitol and state government,” he said, “I can see this becoming a duplex for a worker there — it’s walkable or bikeable.”

He said he can also see such projects benefiting senior citizens and believes such projects can be built to fit into the neighborhood.

Another dream is finding a location to create a five-acre farm.

“That would be a placemaker,” he says, noting that urban agriculture is a huge draw for some — much the way parks used to be, and creates food security for the neighborhood.

On the city’s part, what to do with the empty lots is a discussion that is beginning.

“Regarding a long-term strategy, we must first engage in a community conversation,” Johnson said. ”To that end, we applied for, and received, a Cities of Service grant which will enable us to bring on two Americorp Vistas to work with neighbors and neighborhoods. The Vistas will conduct outreach, education, planning, visioning, program assessment and resource development around the very issue of blight elimination. We expect to have two dedicated staffers this June.”

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