§ 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.