The National League of Cities (NLC) and the Center for Community Progress selected 12 cities across four states to participate in the Vacant Property Leadership Institute (VPLI) training program. The four-day program in February 2022 will equip leaders with skills and tools to address vacant, abandoned and deteriorated properties to benefit their communities at the local and state levels.

The program heavily focuses on sustainable and equitable development strategies to improve vacant properties and return the land to valuable use. "We were looking for cities who understood why equity is important to be embedded in their vacant property strategy. As we were looking through the applications we wanted to see how each of the cities, towns and villages were trying to incorporate racial equity, and at the institute how could we augment that to help them get to the root cause of their issues," said Lauren Lowery, NLC housing and community development program director.

The communities selected run the gamut from rural to urban, with populations ranging from 14,000 to more than 2.7 million residents. Participating Georgia cities are College Park, Perry and South Fulton; cities in Illinois are Chicago, Decatur, Kankakee, Peoria and Rockford; those in Kentucky are Louisville and Winchester; and cities in Wisconsin are Milwaukee and Racine.

Property vacancies occur for a variety of reasons, one of which is economic hardship. The numbers of vacant properties jumped after the economic crisis starting in 2008, and they are expected to increase again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Godard said. This is especially expected for commercial properties considering the number of restaurants, stores and offices that closed or fell behind on upkeep.

Read the full article about reimagining vacant properties by Katie Pyzyk at Smart Cities Dive.