Vacant Lots
Creative Ways to Activate Roofless Buildings and Vacant Lots
Pocket parks aren’t the only way to repurpose underused urban spaces.
Omaha Program Promotes Infill Development
Budding developers can access funding and low-cost vacant lots for affordable housing construction.
Maryland Passes New Vacancy Tax Law
The law allows local jurisdictions to set tax rates for vacant lots and properties to discourage speculation and stimulate development.
Report: One-Third of Vacant Lots in Chicago Near Transit
Vacant lots pose challenges for the city’s goals of promoting transit-oriented development.
Guerilla Urbanism: Small Interventions, Big Impact
Citizen-led projects can lead to broader changes — if cities will listen.
DC ‘Vacant to Vibrant’ Properties Remain Vacant
The city auctioned off 58 lots at low prices to stimulate housing development. Half are still vacant.
Parking Takes up One-Quarter of Downtown Atlanta
The city’s downtown core devotes an abnormally high percentage of its historic blocks to parking.
Map Identifies DeKalb County Brownfield Sites
The GIS tool is designed to help developers find vacant and blighted lots that could be restored for new housing or other uses.
Phoenix Moves to Build Affordable Housing on City-Owned Land
The city has so far issued two requests for proposals from developers to build mixed-income housing on city-owned lots.
Group Urges L.A. to Build Housing on Vacant Lots
A survey of city-owned vacant lots identifies properties that could be developed into affordable housing or shelter.
Detroit Mayor Proposes Vacant Lot Tax
A new tax plan would reform the city’s famously low vacancy tax rates in an effort to stimulate more housing development and limit speculation.
Proposed Land Value Tax Plan in Detroit
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan proposes hiking property taxes for vacant land and buildings while lowering the rate for occupied homes and businesses in a split tax plan he contends will resolve many of Detroit's blight and high property tax woes.
New Yorkers Need Land. NYPD is Sitting on Nearly 150 Lots.
A new map reveals how much land in New York City is being wasted by city police—often sitting vacant, rather than serving the public good.
Philadelphia Mayor Hopefuls Want More Affordable Housing on Vacant Lots
Many of the candidates agree that a slow, complex sales process and strong councilmanic prerogative hinder the development of city-owned lots.
How Low Land Taxes Contribute to the Housing Shortage
The relatively low cost of holding on to vacant lots leads to underdevelopment in what are often prime residential areas.
Chicago To Boost Vacant Lot Sales Program
The city hopes its incentives to buyers will help convert the thousands of city-owned vacant lots into housing, green space, or other productive uses.
How Abandoned Properties Can Be Used for Redevelopment
Abandoned properties can be a burden on a community, bringing everything from negative curb appeal to an increase in crime. Using these properties for positive community development can kill two birds with one stone.
California Not Creating Affordable Housing Quickly Enough, Audit Finds
The audit points to inefficiencies in the state's process for identifying and using surplus properties to create affordable housing.
The Importance of Unintentional Nature in Cities
A new book argues in favor of spontaneous, informal natural spaces.
Opinion: Richmond, Virginia Needs a Land Value Tax
Switching from property tax to a land value tax could rein in sprawl, boost urban density, and lower the cost of housing.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
