Legislative Brief: Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009
Title
The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009 (H.R. 932/S. 453)
Sponsors
H.R. 932 - Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY); S. 453 – Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Summary
The National Trust for Historic Preservation supports programs and legislation that integrate historic preservation into renovation and reuse of abandoned and vacant properties. The "Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act of 2009" (H.R. 932/S. 453) will provide grants that "support adaptive reuse, rehabilitation, or improvement of architecturally, historically, or culturally significant structures, or other structures of community significance, in areas targeted for conservation under a regeneration plan."
The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009 directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a demonstration program, under multi-year cooperative agreements with local governments experiencing at least 20% population loss since 1970 (or consortia of them), to encourage and test innovative vacant property reclamation and urban infrastructure renewal strategies in older industrial cities, their suburbs, and metropolitan areas with a history of severe population and employment loss, blight, and urban decay caused by vacant properties.
The bill identifies eligible grant uses for vacant property programs activities, such as: (1) creating local or regional land banks; (2) using recovered building materials for reuse and recycling infrastructure, facilities, as well as technical support; (3) establishing local government purchasing requirements for deconstruction to make use of existing building materials in new and rehabilitation construction; (4) enhancing the ability of state and local courts and administrative agencies to address problems caused by vacant and abandoned properties, and to facilitate their transfer to public control under a local or regional land bank; (5) expansion and improvement of code enforcement capabilities; (6) development of data and information systems such as comprehensive real property systems, early warning systems, and vacant property inventory and tracking systems; and (7) amendment or reform of state and local property tax foreclosure procedures. Grant funding could not be used to demolish, alter, or modify any property listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Authorizations
The bill provides $100 million annually for three years beginning in FY'10 for Community Regeneration Implementation Grants and a total of $50 million in Planning and Sustainability Demonstration Project Grants over the same period.
