Vacant Property Registry

Courtesy of mlive.com

Learning from one another is one of the benefits of the Vibrant NEO 2040 planning process.  By the end of this year, one of the deliverables for NEOSCC is a Tools and Best Practices product.  It will include tools, processes, and practices that support, model, and build collaboration and other capacities essential for regional sustainability including best/promising practices; shared data; and replicable templates.

The Conditions and Trends Platform, which is one tool developed by the NEOSCC, identifies housing vacancy rates as a big problem in Northeast Ohio that is in need of a series of solutions (click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the data).  A number of cities have implemented programs such as the Vacant Property Registry to deal with abandoned bank-owned properties, often referred to as REO (Real Estate Owned) properties.  These similar programs have demonstrated potential to address blight and abandonment in many communities across the country.  Locally, communities in Northeast Ohio such as Alliance, Parma Heights, Painesville, Youngstown and Cleveland Heights have all enacted legislation to combat vacant properties.  Click here for a complete list of communities in Ohio that have a Vacant Property Registry and a link to their codified ordinance.