Springfield land bank in early stages amid efforts to stimulate ‘missing middle’ housing
- Springfield Daily Citizen
- Oct 1
- 1 min read
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Springfield Daily Citizen) —
City officials hope to have a land bank up and running within a year, pending action by the City Council and County Commission
More than three years after Springfield state Rep. Bill Owen first filed legislation authorizing the city of Springfield to create a land bank, he finally managed to get something on the governor’s desk last year — fulfilling a longtime legislative priority of the Springfield City Council.
Since then, the city has begun exploring what a local land bank might look like, and how to go about creating one in partnership with Greene County. Those efforts are still in the early stages, but Steve Childers, Springfield’s director of planning and development, is hopeful the city can have one up and running within a year.
A land bank is “a public entity with unique powers to put vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties back to productive use according to community goals,” according to the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit that helps communities address property vacancy, abandonment and deterioration.