BALTIMORE — Addressing blight in communities around Baltimore.
There are nearly 14,000 vacant properties in the city.
Now there's a new effort to do something about them.
Housing advocates and homeowners launched a campaign for community control to establish Baltimore City's first land bank.
It would operate in partnership with city government to buy vacant homes and then sell them.
"We have some vacant properties that executive decisions should be made. During one development project in another community we came across a property that didn't have any traction since 1897, on West North Avenue, a main corridor. And coming across properties like that was one of the reasons that we said we need other things in the toolbox to be able to acquire this. Because we're talking about a property that the city has assessed a value of $5,000 when the taxes on it is $200,000,"
There is a bill being proposed in the city council that would set up the land bank.
