Several big cities are working to make it easier to improve vacant lots:

Detroit officials want to triple property-tax rates on vacant land and reduce rates by an average of 30% for homeowners. The idea is to spur development on 30,000 neglected vacant lots held by owners who pay almost no taxes. It is a tall order. The city’s population has fallen by two-thirds since its 1950s heyday, and the Detroit land bank holds another 63,000 vacant lots. 

In Pittsburgh, the city council this month passed a measure to more easily transfer the 13,000 or so city-owned lots and vacant properties to a municipal land bank and into the hands of developers or nonprofits. The city’s population is down by more than half since its peak in the 1950s.

Chicago, whose population has fallen by about a quarter since the 1950s, has more than 10,000 city-owned vacant lots. Another 16,634 are caught in a limbo of back taxes and unpaid fees. Every other year, the county tries to unload such properties in a tax-lien auction known as the Scavenger Sale. Only about 8% of the properties in the auctions from 2007 to 2019 went to buyers who managed to obtain a clear title, the Cook County Treasurer’s office found…

A measure signed into law last week by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker aims to resuscitate such properties. It cuts interest rates on overdue property taxes to 9% from 18%. It also allows Cook County to automatically acquire tax liens on delinquent properties before they reach the Scavenger Sale, reducing the time it takes to clear titles and transfer them to developers or nonprofits.

Even with reduced obstacles, it will take time for the number of vacant properties to be significantly reduced.

Once the property can be purchased and redeveloped, new questions emerge. What will be built there? What do owners, developers, and builders see as the price points that make it worth their time? How do new buildings and/or land uses fit with the existing neighborhood?

In other words, this is a multi-decade story worth paying attention. How did these properties become vacant and where did the residents go? Where do things stand now? What will they look like in the future? Specific decisions now could help alter the story to come.