N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1601: Legislative intent

§ 1601. Legislative intent.

The legislature finds and declares that New York's communities are

important to the social and economic vitality of the state. Whether

urban, suburban, or rural, many communities are struggling to cope with

vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties.

There exists a crisis in many cities and their metro areas caused by

disinvestment in real property and resulting in a significant amount of

vacant and abandoned property. For example, Cornell Cooperative

Extension Association of Erie county estimates that the city of Buffalo

has thirteen thousand vacant parcels, four thousand vacant structures

and an estimated twenty-two thousand two hundred ninety vacant

residential units. This condition of vacant and abandoned property

represents lost revenue to local governments and large costs ranging

from demolition, effects of safety hazards and spreading deterioration

of neighborhoods including resulting mortgage foreclosures.

The need exists to strengthen and revitalize the economy of the state

and its local units of government by solving the problems of vacant and

abandoned property in a coordinated manner and to foster the development

of such property and promote economic growth. Such problems may include

multiple taxing jurisdictions lacking common policies, ineffective

property inspection, code enforcement and property rehabilitation

support, lengthy and/or inadequate foreclosure proceedings and lack of

coordination and resources to support economic revitalization.

There is an overriding public need to confront the problems caused by

vacant, abandoned and tax-delinquent properties through the creation of

new tools to be available to communities throughout New York enabling

them to turn vacant spaces into vibrant places.

Land banks are one of the tools that can be utilized by communities to

facilitate the return of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent

properties to productive use. The primary focus of land bank operations

is the acquisition of real property that is tax delinquent, tax

foreclosed, vacant, abandoned, and the use of tools authorized in this

article to eliminate the harms and liabilities caused by such

properties.