By Eugene T. Lowe
October 3, 2005

Stacey D. Stewart, President and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation, briefed the mayors on a new grant that her foundation has awarded the Conference of Mayors to pursue a project on vacant and abandoned properties. While the issue may not sound exciting, Stewart said, “there are few things that can inject more life into a local economy than a strategy to reclaim vacant properties.” With reclaimed vacant land, cities can turn liabilities into assets by creating cheap land for affordable housing and economic development. Stewart said that mayors are reclaiming vacant land in St. Louis, Baltimore, Rochester (NY) and Chicago.

Stewart described the liabilities of vacant land. She said that, “Fifteen percent of all city land is vacant and unusable.” Costs are incurred. For example, St. Paul, Stewart said, spends more than $200,000 a year just to maintain abandoned properties. And until recently, “Trenton spent more than half a million dollars” on vacant land maintenance,” she added.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley joined Stewart in the discussion with a description of his city’s Homeownership Preservation Initiative, an activity which is designed to prevent vacant and abandoned properties. Baltimore Mayor Martin O’ Malley described his city’s vacant property initiative called Project 5000. Baltimore has identified 5,000 vacant properties that are being returned to productive use.

The Vacant and Abandoned Properties Project of the Conference of Mayors will produce a mayor’s primer on the issue and a best practices guide based on a peer to peer learning session that will be held in the spring of 2006.