Systems to Improve the Management of City-Owned Land in Baltimore

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Abstract

Baltimore participated in a 2004 National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) pilot project to enhance local capacity to manage land markets through innovative use of parcel-level information. The city already had a program in place to acquire and re-market abandoned properties. The NNIP project focused on helping officials use the program-generated property information for more effective land management. New information systems were created to manage the complex business rules, to store the property data, and to provide staff with desktop access to information. An integrated disposition system reduced staff time, improved performance, and enhanced the city's service to its business partners.

Introduction

In late August 2004, the Urban Institute (UI) and five of its local partners in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP)¹ began work on one in a series of pilot projects on innovative uses of information sponsored by the Brookings Institution's Urban Markets Initiative.

In the UI/NNIP project, each of the participating partners developed new decision support tools to enhance local capacity to guide and manage land markets. In all of the five cities (Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Providence, and Washington DC) the projects were designed to take advantage of much improved parcel-level land information systems that had been developed. The results of all of the projects are summarized in a report prepared by the Urban Institute.²

While Brookings provided the central grant to support this effort,³ considerable additional funding was provided by the Fannie Mae Foundation (for the work in Washington DC) and Grant 204.0609 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (for the work in Baltimore), along with a number of smaller grants and contributions from local foundations and agencies in the other sites.

This report, prepared by the Urban Institute and Location Age, describes the work accomplished in Baltimore under the Annie E. Casey Foundation grant.

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