Genesee County Land Bank

FLINT, Michigan—The pride that runs through Flint is perhaps most strongly felt in its neighborhoods and the people who choose to build lives there.

FLINT, MI – About 400 Genesee County students participated in cleanup and beautification projects all over Flint on Wednesday, July 31 in an effort to give back to the community.

Hundreds of Mid-Michigan teens rolled up their sleeves hoping to make a positive impact in their community.

Yard work, disposing of debris, and cleaning graffiti was the mission for nearly 400 teens in Genesee County on Wednesday.

Five locations were on the list to clean, but the biggest was the former James Lumber site in Flint.

While many teenagers are enjoying the final weeks of their summer break,  some of Vehicle City’s youth will spend July 31 making Flint a little more vibrant for everyone.

FLINT, MI -- On any given day of the week, Flint resident Clarence Campbell can be found mowing and maintaining vacant properties throughout the city.

He doesn’t own the dozens of properties he takes care of — Campbell is one of nearly 1,000 Flint residents who maintain vacant properties through the Genesee County Land Bank’s Clean & Green program.

Funded by the Ruth Mott Foundation, Clean & Green supports community-based groups and organizations in maintaining and beautifying vacant Land Bank-owned properties.

GENESEE COUNTY (WJRT) (7/3/2019) - The Genesee County Land Bank is now showcasing the properties they're working to sell through the "Featured Home Program."

Many cities have the goal of increasing civic participation. While the foundational principles of democratic institutions and processes require such public engagement, often the link between government and community is symbolic, watered down, and doesn’t truly represent the public’s interest. As a result, many people feel disconnected from the public discourse, magnifying a diminishing trust in democratic institutions.

Demolition work will soon begin at a long-abandoned trailer park in Flint.

Shady Acres closed in 2015.  But the 20-acre park is overgrown, and overwhelmed with trash and rotting mobile homes.

Michele Wildman is the director of the Genesee County Land Bank. She says a lot of work has gone into preparing to clean up acres of blight.

FLINT, Mich — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the Genesee County Land Bank Authority was selected to receive a grant award totaling $800,000 in EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs.

The money the EPA says will aid under-served and economically disadvantaged communities in opportunity zones and other parts of the country in assessing and cleaning up abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

FLINT — A new segment of the Genesee Valley Trail opened Wednesday, running through the former Chevy in the Hole site and connecting with the Flint River Trail.

FLINT, Michigan—Megan Heyza’s Saturday began at 8 a.m. and won’t end until 1 a.m. At age 25, this mom and waitress is also a tireless community volunteer, helping to transform the face of 53 homes on Flint’s eastside through her Porch Project initiative.

Property abandonment presents pervasive problems for legacy cities, but land bank-oriented greening programmes that engage residents – including youth – in improving neighbourhood conditions provide the opportunity to mitigate the consequences of property abandonment. Diminishing the negative effects of vacant properties is essential for improving the health and well-being of residents in these cities. This research examines the impact of a vacant land greening programme in the Rust Belt city of Flint, MI, through interviews with thirty-three participating community groups. Participants believed that the programme was effective at mitigating blight and building community pride. These results are directly applicable to the development of future blight elimination programmes throughout the region.

Over the past year, as Detroit officials came under fire for fluctuating demolition costs and the Flint water contamination crisis was widely publicized, Flint has been making quiet progress on another front.

This initiative by the Genesee County Land Bank to reduce open space maintenance costs has planted Dutch White Clover on 1800 lots in Flint.

MT. MORRIS, MI (WNEM) - It's a hotel that looks almost as hospitable as a haunted house.

GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- Nearly 1,800 vacant and blighted houses have been demolished in recent years under the largest blight-elimination program in Flint history, officials announced Monday, June 8.

Flint is nearing the end of a major blight-elimination program and additional demolitions are planned this month as part of the effort.

The state is sending $2.6 million in federal funds here to demolish blighted homes in the historic Civic Park neighborhood in northwest Flint, an area where General Motors once used assembly-line techniques to quickly build nearly 1,000 homes for workers in a single construction season.

The Genesee County Land Bank announced Wednesday that it has been awarded $2.6 million to demolish vacant houses and eradicate blight in Flint's Civic Park neighborhood.

Most auto jobs in Flint are gone, but the city is still saddled with unhappy souvenirs of an industrial past. What comes next for the Vehicle City?

Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) has announced six recipients will receive Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) funding income. The $2.55 million awarded in the first funding round will help finance blight demolition and senior housing projects in Berrien, Calhoun, Genesee, Ingham and Kalamazoo counties.

The EPA has set up a decontamination operation at the site of a former Mid-Michigan dry cleaners. The agency says it could be a month before the property is cleaned up.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., toured Flint's Civic Park neighborhood Monday, May 5, getting a first-hand look at a pilot program that aims to improve the appearance of vacant homes.

Planning continues for the site of a former General Motors manufacturing complex in Flint known as “Chevy in the Hole” to be transformed into parkland, officials said

Thursday, Flint and the Genesee County Land Bank will share a site  design plan for the old Chevy in the Hole site.

 The long list of properties sliding toward tax foreclosure on March 31 is littered with parcels valued at no more than a few hundred dollars, but with just weeks for owners to settle their tax debts, there are also nine prize parcels that assessors say are worth more than $1 million each.

The organization overseeing the demolition of hundreds of Flint homes  has banned salvagers from entering them and taking materials before they are razed

With demolition underway for 1,600 homes in Flint, here's five things to know about the process for knocking down a blighted property.

The organization overseeing the demolition of hundreds of Flint homes  has banned salvagers from entering them and taking materials before they are razed.

The Genesee County Land Bank announced that it has received a $15,000 grant from the Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network to support the Low Maintenance Greening Demonstration Project.

The Genesee County Land Bank is holding a meeting to provide demolition and abatement contractors with information on the requirements and qualifications to become a contractor with the GCLB.

The Genesee County Land Bank is holding a meeting to provide demolition and abatement contractors with information on the requirements and qualifications to become a contractor with the GCLB.

Within two months, people in Flint should start seeing the fruits of more than $20 million in federal funds that will be used to demolish as many as 1,700 buildings.

Genesee County Land Bank officials are asking for $25 million in federal funds in order to demolish more than 2,000 blighted homes.

By Sarah Schuch | sschuch@mlive.com, The Flint Jounral

There are so many vacant properties in the city that the Genesee County Land Bank says it only has enough time and money to cut grass on the lots one time this year.

By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

Workers from the Genesee County Land Bank cut grass on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 near the intersection of Carpenter Road and Saginaw Street. Crews will only cut lots once this summer because of a lack of funding and the number of properties in the city of Flint.

By Michelle Tessier, The Flint Journal

It's not the city of Flint that will notice the presence of the county Land Bank like never before this summer.

By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

 The county Land Bank has a green light to start discounting some of its best properties by 30 percent for police officers, firefighters and select others.

By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com, The Flint Jounral

Kettering University is snapping up property around its Flint campus from the Genesee County Land Bank Authority, clearing vacant structures and creating a land link that extends all the way to Flint's Historic Atwood Stadium.

By Roberto Acosta | racosta1@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

A former official with the Genesee County Land Bank has been named director of the land bank for Ingham County.

By Blake Thorne | bthorne1@mlive.com, The Flint Jounral

Complimentary advice. No-strings-attached help in completing your income taxes from the chairman of Genesee County Tax Coalition. Free money.

By Chris Aldridge | caldridg@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

The city of Flint, Genesee County and the county Land Bank have spent a combined $36.5 million in federal grants awarded to fight blight in distressed communities, local officials announced Friday, Jan. 25.

By Kristin Longley | klongley1@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

If you're in the market for a new house in Flint, Saturday could have been the day you found your dream home.

by Jared Smith, NBC25 News

The Genesee County Land Bank's original mission was to put vacant properties back onto the tax rolls. Some state legislators visited the Flint area Tuesday to see how the system works and if the concept would be successful in other communities.

By Randy Conat, ABC 12 News

Four newly renovated homes in the city will be on display during a Saturday home tour and boosters say buyers can become home owners for as little as $1,000 down.

By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com, The Flint Journal

The Genesee County Land Bank is ready for its Spring Homes Tour. This Saturday's open house puts the spotlight on four houses in Flint's historic Carriage Town neighborhood.

By Marc Jacobson, ABC 12 News