The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009

September 29th, 2009 by Mike Knutson

While at the Rural Housing Playbook Regional Conference in Iroquois a couple weeks ago, I heard rural South Dakota community representatives say that in addition to developing new housing stock (like the Governors House), they need to (1) do a lot more to clean up old dilapidated buildings and (2) develop housing prices in the $40,000 - $70,000 range.

Recently, I learned about a bill before Congress - the Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009 - that could become a valuable tool for accomplishing both.

According to a fact sheet by an organization supporting the measure, the Regeneration Act would

“build the capacity of these local governments to prevent, demolish, manage, and reclaim vacant and abandoned properties through an array of effective strategies and tools.”

The Fact Sheet goes on to list the following as eligible activities:

Implementing multi-jurisdictional or regional approaches to addressing the problem of vacant and abandoned property;
Reusing properties in ways that will provide long-term benefits to the public, whether through the creation of green infrastructure, economic development, or other strategies;
Encouraging innovation, experimentation, and environmentally sustainable practices;
Creating new and sustainable employment opportunities for residents; and
Starting or expanding land banks that establish public control over vacant and abandoned property.

I’m still trying to learn about the measure, but it sounds like an opportunity for communities to buy abandoned properties and develop innovative ways to get them back on the tax role. (Perhaps that would include the establishment of Purchase, Rehab, Resell programs).

What I fear, however, is that the measure has been written in such a way that small communities won’t be able to take advantage. I’ve read several other blogs urge their readers contact their congressional delegation in support of the legislation. Perhaps rural advocates need to do the same, and make sure that there’s a place for rural communities as well.

Note: Thanks to the Smart Growth America blog for making me aware of the Regeneration Act. In addition to this nice article, the blog offers creative ways for urban areas to look at growth issues.

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