The City of Pittsburg is ramping up its efforts to improve properties in Pittsburg. With the help of the Pittsburg Land Bank, the City is continuing to turn blighted, vacated and underused properties into new opportunities for businesses, homebuilders and developers.
The City of Pittsburg established the Pittsburg Land Bank in 2015 to convert vacant, abandoned, tax-delinquent and otherwise neglected properties into productive use. The land bank strategically acquires problem properties that destabilize neighborhoods, create fire and safety hazards and drive down property values, and transfers them to new, responsible owners in a manner that results in outcomes consistent with the City’s revitalization efforts.
“The land bank is a means to address blight in our community,” says City of Pittsburg Community Development and Housing Director Quentin Holmes. “It’s a tool the City can use to improve neighborhoods and improve our housing stock.”
The land bank also provides an opportunity for landowners who no longer want their properties or cannot afford the maintenance required to keep them in good condition. Because the land bank is a not-for-profit entity, landowners receive an added tax benefit.
“The land bank could be a way to solve a problem that a property owner may not know how to resolve. In these cases, we can eliminate a financial burden on the property owner and redevelop the property for future use,” says Holmes.
(Read more: City of Pittsburg)