Vacant 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.
Detroit Residents Find it Hard to Access Land Bank Properties
Longtime residents say the city is not fulfilling its goal of keeping vacant parcels in the hands of locals as property values rise steeply.
Houston Residents Want to Build Pocket Parks on City-Owned Lots
In a park-poor neighborhood, vacant lots provide an untapped opportunity for small-scale parks.
Newark Launches Land Bank to Revive Long-Vacant Properties
The land bank will assess proposals for the sale and redevelopment of 100 city-owned properties in neglected neighborhoods.
Key Considerations for Urban Demolition Planning
Demolition can be a lot of fun for the people holding the sledge hammers and swinging the wrecking balls, but demolition is serious business with a large number of significant social and environmental consequences.
Housing Designs for New York Small Lots
A design competition focuses on the many tiny and often irregularly shaped vacant lots of New York City.
Greening Vacant Lots Improves Depression
According to new reaearch, the power of green space where vacant lots previously stood includes mental health benefits, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
Long Beach Urban Farming Initiative Targets Vacant Lots
A California policy lets cities offer tax incentives to landowners who put vacant lots to use as urban farms or gardens. Long Beach is the latest comer, but the uptake has been sluggish elsewhere.
Chicago to Use Vacant Lots to Capture Stormwater
Chicago's Planning Department is putting eight city lots to work as "Stormwater Parks."
Cook County Land Bank Expands Vacancy Program, Offers 4,400 Lots for Sale
The vacant lot program at the Cook County Land Bank Authority recently kicked into high gear—offering a huge number of vacant lots for sale, located around 27 neighborhoods and suburbs in the Chicago region.
Don't Forget to #LoveThatLot This Valentine's Day
What better way to show you love for your community than by transforming its underused spaces into gathering areas for activities and fun?
A Toolkit for Solving California's Housing Crisis
The McKinsey Global Institute wants to help California build 3.5 million homes by 2025.
Dallas Doesn't Deliver on Promised Libraries
In 2006, Dallas voters approved a bond package that promised $42 million for new libraries. Ten years later, and after $11.75 million in spending, none of the projects are close to completion.
South Bend Reactivating Vacant Lots
Formerly vacant homes are now vacant lots in South Bend, Indiana. Returning the lots to productive uses presents a new kind of challenge for community groups and local officials.
Kansas City Program to Turn Vacant Lots Into Urban Forest
The Kansas City Land Bank has the funding to back up plans to begin transforming blighted, vacant lots into thriving groves of poplar trees.
City of Grand Prairie
City of Grand Prairie
West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Hercules
City of Fitchburg, WI
City of Culver City
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.
