Sharon McClinton cares for the vacant land around her house. Detroit is trying to make it easier for residents like her to buy that land, too.
Apparently, the phone has been ringing off the hook over at Detroit’s planning department. It’s all because of a few lines uttered by Mayor Dave Bing in his State of the City address last week. (You’ll find them about 30 minutes in.)
“This week we sent out over 500 letters to property owners in Hubbard Farms, Springwells Village and Southwest Detroit,” he announced, “telling them if they own a home adjacent to a vacant city-owned lot, they can purchase this lot for a mere $200.”
“No coming downtown,” the mayor said. “No added bureaucracy. The city will mail back the deed.”
The initiative is a response to the overwhelming problem of abandoned property in Detroit. It’s a problem we explored in our stories about Detroit “blotters” — which you can see here and here.
Blotting describes what happens when homeowners annex the vacant lot, or lots, next door. They create expanded properties, between the size of a lot and a city block. Sometimes, residents can purchase these side lots. Often, they’re constrained by bureaucracy or money, so they may just throw up a fence to ward off the dangers of abandonment. Continue reading
