By Jocelyn Bogen
February 6, 2006

On Friday January 27, Vacant and Abandoned Task Force Chair Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi led the Conference of Mayors Vacant and Abandoned Task Force meeting, which provided mayors with an opportunity to discuss the problems and opportunities they were having with the acquisition and disposition of vacant land and abandoned properties. The session also offered briefings on an upcoming Mayor’s Guide Book, Baltimore’s Project 5000 Vacant and Abandoned Properties initiative, and how to use liability insurance to clean up abandoned properties.

“Properties that are vacant and abandoned are properties that keep neighborhoods from reaching their greatest potential,” stated Fabrizi. The purpose of the task force is to develop a network of mayors who provide leadership and expertise on the abatement of abandoned and vacant properties. The task force will also create a compendium guide book on the mayoral role and the best practices for abating abandoned land and vacant properties which will eventually be distributed to the full Conference of Mayors membership. There will be a facilitated mayoral peer-to-peer exchange that develops and educates mayors on the issues held later in the spring.

Alan Mallach, research director for the National Housing Institute, gave an overview of a draft guide book entitled Transforming Adversity into Opportunity: A Mayor’s Guide to the Reclamation of Vacant and Abandoned Properties. Mallach intends for the publication to be a tool to help mayors frame abandoned property strategies. Mallach added, “The ultimate goal is to turn these properties into assets; assets with long-term benefits to the city.” The guide book when completed will be a joint publication of the Conference of Mayors Housing Taskforce, the National Vacant Properties Campaign, and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Project 5000 Director Michael Bainum spoke about Baltimore’s housing initiative to return 5,000 vacant and abandoned properties to productive use. Bainum outlined how Baltimore has been able to aggressively seek tax sale foreclosures, transfer vacant HABC properties, increase capital bond authority from 45 to 60 million, call on law firms and title companies to help clear title, and call on local businesses and Realtors to discount services. To date, the Project 5000 Initiative has led to 5,909 acquisitions completed; a ten-fold increase in the number of annual acquisitions and dispositions; an average acquisition time reduced from 18 months to 8; and, The outsourcing of realtor services and enhanced planning efforts.

The final speaker, David L. Elkind, Partner, Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky, LLP, discussed using liability insurance to help clean up abandoned properties. Elkind advised cities to use their historical insurance coverage to fund remediation of vacant and abandoned properties with environmental contamination. “Most liability insurance applies whenever there is property damage, not when contamination is discovered, not when a claims is made. It’s whenever property damage happens. In the environmental context, contamination typically happens over a course of decades, as contaminates migrate through the soil and into groundwater and continuously leaks into groundwater. Therefore, the historical insurance coverage from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s can provide coverage for today’s environmental liabilities.” The results not only restore and protect natural resources, but also create a property that is sought after and desired by developers and real estate companies.