Land Banking Legislation Introduced in New Jersey
Legislation Update
July 5, 2016
c. At present, many vacant, abandoned and other problem properties, rather than being productively reused, remain vacant despite frequent changes in ownership, and continue to have a blighting effect on their surroundings;
d. The State’s municipalities can benefit from more effective tools to control the inventory of vacant, abandoned, and other problem properties, in order to both minimize the harm that they do in their present condition and to facilitate their restoration to productive use;
e. In order to most effectively engage the local community in identifying problem properties, the State’s municipalities can also benefit from the publication of interactive online mapping databases of vacant and abandoned properties;
f. To ensure that land banking activities are conducted in an honest and open manner, the public can also benefit from the inclusion of properties subject to land banking agreements within the interactive online mapping databases regardless of whether or not such properties are vacant and abandoned; and
g. It is, therefore, in the best interest of this State to allow municipalities to designate single entities to act on their behalf to acquire, maintain, and sell, lease and otherwise dispose of vacant, abandoned and problem properties, in order to carry out strategies to ensure that the reuse of these properties provides the greatest long-term benefit to the physical, social and economic condition of the municipality.
Source: New Jersey Legislature ( S2373 full text)
