Kansas City recently began transferring 3,500 vacant properties into a city-owned land bank, the latest step in a plan to restore blighted communities in the city’s core. The city has the ability to give properties away or combine two smaller properties to make the land more marketable. Some of the land will be set aside to make “green spaces” such as community parks and neighborhood gardens. Land banking has become more popular in urban areas, with land banks established in Cleveland, St. Louis, and many other hard-hit Midwestern cities.
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