New 5-year plan means the Kalamazoo County Land Bank is thinking more than one house at a time

A Way Home — Housing Solutions: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave’s series on solutions to homelessness and ways to increase low-income and affordable housing. It is made possible by a coalition of funders, including Kalamazoo County, the ENNA Foundation, and Kalamazoo County Land Bank.

KALAMAZOO, MI — Land Bank organizations exist to acquire, demolish, and rehabilitate blighted properties and get them back on municipal tax rolls.

But the Kalamazoo County Land Bank is evolving to look at bigger and potentially more impactful community-wide outcomes, rather than taking things one troubled house at a time.

“The Land Bank’s greatest asset is not the property it owns but its ability to bring people together around a shared vision,” says Zachery Bauer, executive director of the 16-year-old Kalamazoo County Land Bank.

Rather than focus the lion’s share of its attention on addressing urban blight house by house — which has been the nonprofit organization’s historic mission — the Land Bank plans to expand its focus by trying to find solutions that lay the groundwork for stronger communities. It’s looking to answer such questions as: How does the community create more first-time-owners? How does it build community wealth? And how does it create housing affordability for the next generation?

“Our mission is the same,” says Bauer. “But now we are looking at outcomes.”

He explained the evolution of the quasi-governmental Land Bank as it announced a new five-year strategic plan on Monday, July 20, 2026.

“Land Banks were created to acquire tax-foreclosed properties, to demolish unsafe buildings, and return vacant properties to productive use,” says Bauer. “Those activities remain incredibly important. But communities today face different challenges — whether that be housing affordability, neighborhood disinvestment, aging housing stock, or underutilized land. Our strategic plan reflects that evolution.”

As it moves forward, the organization will strive to become less reactive and more intentional, he says. The old approach was to acquire a vacant property through tax foreclosure, demolish or renovate structures on it, and sell it. 

“The new approach,” he says, “is going to be to assemble multiple properties, work with neighborhood organizations, coordinate housing, public infrastructure, commercial space, public investment, and try to create momentum for entire blocks or corridors. Success isn’t one big beautiful house surrounded by vacant land. Success is an entire neighborhood becoming stronger.”

Dubbed “30 for 2030,” the plan includes a total of 30 strategies that the Land Bank hopes to employ between now and 2030. They align with seven strategic priorities:

1. Ensuring that Land Bank powers are appropriately used to address problem properties in Kalamazoo County.

2. Being an active, collaborative community development partner.

3. Supporting the development of new quality, attainable housing options.

4. Preserving and growing neighborhood stability by improving residential property conditions.

5. Strategically intervening to support transformational projects.

6. Activating vacant lots to improve environmental health and quality of life.

7. And operating with organizational excellence.

Rather than just being a property owner that residential and commercial developers approach with ideas, the Land Bank will be a proactive convener. It will actively partner with others to get things done. Bauer says it will work with neighborhood associations, philanthropic organizations, financial institutions, local governments, employers, contractors, and community organizations, as well as residential and commercial property developers. He says Kalamazoo is uniquely blessed with people who care about the community. 

Stephen Dupuie, executive director of the Edison Neighborhood Association, says he looks forward to having the Land Bank continue to keep neighborhood associations intrinsically involved in revitalization projects, including long- and short-term planning. He says the Land Bank has a history of helping, from hosting community events to providing incentives for businesses to fill those new spaces. And it is presently helping to renovate several houses along Dewey Avenue.

“The work didn’t just end with (them saying), ‘We’ve re-done the building,’” Dupuie says of past Land Bank projects. “It really went a lot farther than that. I’ve seen that back then. But I also see that now in the work that they’re doing on Dewey Street, revitalizing a whole block of houses and really keeping the neighborhood association involved.”

Jonathan Yarbrough, executive director of the Northside Association for Community Development, says one of the most exciting parts of NACD’s partnership with the Land Bank is the development that will be going on during the next few years, including the construction of 20 new homes.

“This is more than just the housing,” he says. ”This is about increasing home-ownership opportunities, stabilizing blocks, and ensuring that development on the Northside includes our residents.”

The Kalamazoo County Land Bank’s work is supported by data and institutional knowledge from the National Land Bank Network, and it will continue to try to find uses for the 350 properties it now controls. Many were acquired through tax foreclosures, and others were acquired from out-of-town or otherwise uninvolved property owners. The Land Bank will continue to focus on properties in the Northside Neighborhood, Comstock Township, Edison Neighborhood, and Milwood area. But Bauer reminds that the Land Bank serves all of Kalamazoo County.

The organization recently added two professionals to grow its full-time operations staff to four. The new hires split the responsibilities of an outgoing member. Megan Buwalda has joined the staff as deputy executive director of finance and operations. Travis Meier has been named director of construction and projects. He will serve as a liaison to contractors. 

The Kalamazoo County Land Bank operates on an annual budget of about $1 million. That includes an allocation of about $125,000 to $150,000, revenues generated by the sale of properties, revenue generated by the rental of some properties, and contributions from the philanthropic community, which accounts for about 60 percent of its budget.

Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema says the organization is financially sound, with about $10 million worth of assets. “That’s a big deal for a nonprofit,” she says. “… It also means they’re poised to be a larger partner in development. So maybe they can do multi-family (housing) deals. Maybe they could do things they haven’t done traditionally in the past.”

Because it’s in a strong financial position, she says the Land Bank is positioned “ to do things other than just take delinquent or tax-foreclosed and put them back on the tax roll.”

But how does the organization develop more first-time homeowners, build community wealth, and create more affordable housing opportunities for the next generation? Bauer says the answer may include using different kinds of financing models — such as land contracts and innovative affordability models. And he says the measures for success may change from looking at organizational output to community-wide outcomes. “Which is a more sophisticated way to think,” he says.

“Instead of thinking we demolished 35 houses, we sold 18 homes, (or that) we have 22 vacant lots available, ” he says, “we’re asking different questions: Did home-ownership increase in this neighborhood? Did private investment follow? Are the neighborhoods we work in becoming more stable? Are families building wealth? And is there a sense of an improved quality of life?”

“So,” he says, “we’re moving from simply managing vacant property to intentionally creating neighborhoods where people want to live, invest and raise their families.”

Thomas Whitener, Kalamazoo County Treasurer and chairperson of the Kalamazoo County Land Bank Board, says the new strategic plan means the Land Bank will focus better on the needs of the citizens of Kalamazoo County and stay within the scope of its mission.

“When someone comes to us with projects they want to do,” he says, “this plan allows us to very quickly reference it and determine whether it’s in the best interest of the Land Bank and the people of Kalamazoo County.”

He and Janell O’Keefe, associate director in technical assistance at the Center for Community Progress, agree that Land Banks are spending less time acquiring foreclosed homes and turning them around. “It is a critical function,” Whitener says, “and it’s still going to happen. But over the last few years, especially during my tenure as county treasurer, the number of foreclosures has cratered. I foreclose on less than 50 properties a year. And most of those sell at auction, which means that we don’t end up putting a lot of properties in the Land Bank. But the need for property, the need for development, the need for an organization that has the competency and the capability to step in on these larger projects hasn’t gone away.”

The Center for Community Progress’ O’Keefe, whose organization was consulted and helped shape the five-year plan, says it should give the Land Bank more direction. “Land Banks can get asked to do a lot of things; a lot of things that they are not best equipped to do or that they only play a minor role in it,” she says.

The strategic plan gives the organization a roadmap for the next few years, and it helps it decide where they are focusing its energy and resources. O’Keefe says it causes them to ask, “Where should the Land Bank lead? Where should the Land Bank walk alongside? Where is it just a tiny puzzle piece (in solving a problem)?”

Realizing that much of the Land Bank’s work is behind-the-scenes meetings, conversations, and planning sessions, what will people see?  Still not much at the outset. “I think it’s a mindset change, where we’re shifting from property transactions to neighborhood transformation,” Bauer says.

People can expect to see the organization have more collaborations with its community partners, he says. Bauer expects the organization to bring together not only the tools to realize a project, but to align them with people ready to help.

“Many neighborhoods still have vacant lots, deteriorating properties and limited paths to home-ownership,” Bauer says. “And those challenges didn’t happen overnight. And they won’t be solved by one organization. Our strategic plan recognizes that long-term neighborhood revitalization requires partnerships, sustained investment and community leadership.”