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Samsa, Matthew J. (2008). "Reclaiming Abandoned Properties: Using Public Nuisance Suits and Land Banks to Pursue Economic Redevelopment," Cleveland State Law Review 56:189-232. Excerpt from Report: "This Note examines the methods of attacking abandonment. The next section, Part II, describes the problems presented by abandoned and vacant housing. Part III examines the effectiveness of code enforcement and traditional tax foreclosure. Part IV analyzes privatized nuisance abatement suits and receiverships. Part V discusses land banks. Part VI argues that using broadly empowered privatized nuisance abatement suits for individual parcels and land banks for mass acquisitions is the most effective means of addressing abandoned property, and Part VII concludes with a brief review of the overall abandonment discussion.

Shroder, Mark, ed. "Brownfields." U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cityscape 12, no. 3 (2010). This issue of Cityscape features articles on a variety of issues related to brownfields, such as federal policies; brownfields redevelopment; and the private markets.

Brophy, Paul and Vey, Jennifer, 2002. "Seizing City Assets: Ten Steps to Urban Land Reform," The Brookings Institution, October 2002. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2002/10metropolitanpolicy_brophy/brophyveyvacantsteps.pdf Introduction: "One of a city's greatest assets is its available land for development. Unfortunately, many cities have land and properties that are vacant, abandoned, or under-used, with few policies and regulations in place to convert these assets into valuable, revenue-generating sites. This brief outlines ten action steps that state and local governments can follow to facilitate the development of urban land and buildings. Compiling an inventory of vacant parcels, planning for the assembly and reuse of land, and working to eliminate the many legal and administrative barriers to acquisition and development are just some of the actions the authors recommend for creating a more transparent, efficient, and effective system for private-market land development. The brief will discuss these and other proposed steps, and will highlight examples of successful practices implemented in states and localities throughout the U.S."

McGovern, Stephen J (2006). "Philadelphia's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: A Case Study of Mayoral Leadership, Bold Planning and Conflict." Housing Policy Debate. 17(3), 529-570. Abstract: "This article examines the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), Mayor John F. Street's plan to revitalize Philadelphia's distressed neighborhoods by issuing $295 million in bonds to finance the acquisition of property, the demolition of derelict buildings, and the assembling of large tracts of land for housing redevelopment. Despite its resemblance to the discredited urban renewal programs of the past, this plan offered real potential for reducing blight by leveraging substantial private investment at a time when public subsidies for affordable housing and community development have been steadily diminishing. However, NTI did not promote equitable development that might have fostered broader support for an inherently controversial plan. Moreover, Street's initial leadership in proposing this bold initiative was followed by a reluctance to promote NTI aggressively after it was adopted in 2002. The result was a watered‐down effort that achieved some goals but has fallen short of what might have been accomplished."

Adams, D., De Sousa, C. and S. Tiesdell. 2010. "Brownfield Development: A Comparison of North American and British Approaches." Urban Studies 47(1): 75-104. "Over the past 30-40 years, urban change and deindustrialisation in advanced economies have created a legacy of vacant and derelict land that is increasingly seen as a development opportunity rather than planning problem. This paper investigates how the shared challenge of bringing such brownfield sites back into productive use has been interpreted differently in four countries: the US, Canada, Scotland and England. In each case, the particular policy environment has shaped the brownfield debate in distinctive ways, producing a different set of relations between the public and private sectors in brownfield redevelopment. Through this detailed comparison of the North American and British experience, the paper traces the maturity of policy and seeks to discover whether the main differences in understanding and tackling brownfield land can be attributed primarily to physical, cultural or institutional factors."

Thomas, Michael R. "A GIS-based decision support system for brownfield redevelopment." Landscape and Urban Planning 58, 1 (2002): 7-23. "To evaluate land use options with respect to brownfields inventory, characterization, and potential for redevelopment, both government and private decision makers need access to information regarding land capability; development incentives; public goals, interests, and preferences; and environmental concerns such as site contamination and environmental quality. This article discusses a decision support system that provides access to state, regional, and local geospatial databases, several informational and visualization tools, and assumptions useful in providing a better understanding of issues, options, and alternatives in redeveloping brownfields. The resultant decision support system is augmented by a unique geographic information systems-based land use modeling application as an integrated expert system." (from abstract)

Mallach, Alan. "Meeting the Challenge of Distressed Property Investors in America's Neighborhoods." 1- 91. New York, NY: LISC, 2010. Introduction: "The mortgage crisis that has gripped the United States since 2007 has resulted in property owners losing millions of properties through foreclosure, with a loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in individual and community assets. Through the foreclosure process, the majority of these properties have been taken back by the mortgage lender and become 'real-estate-owned' or REO properties. For the first year or so after foreclosures took off in 2007, with lenders unprepared to deal with these properties and few buyers of any sort in the marketplace, REO properties often went begging. By the end of 2008, however, that was no longer the case. Private property investors - from "mom & pop" investors buying one or two properties to Wall Street firms and consortia of foreign investors buying entire portfolios - had moved back into the market in large numbers. Since early 2009, the ranks of investors have steadily grown, while it has become less accurate to refer to them as 'REO investors'. Rather than waiting for properties to come into lenders' REO inventories, distressed property investors - as they are more appropriately known - have been increasingly buying houses through short sales, buying non-performing mortgages, or bidding against foreclosing lenders at foreclosure sales. Today, their presence is a major factor in the marketplace of nearly every metropolitan area experiencing large numbers of foreclosures. Their activities are having a powerful effect on neighborhoods generally and on the neighborhood stabilization efforts of cities and non-profit community development corporations (CDCs) in particular. Their effect, however, is a matter of considerable disagreement and even controversy. The purpose of this report is twofold: first, to offer insight into how distressed property investors operate, and how their activ

Culhane, Dennis P., and Amy E. Hillier (2001). "Comment on 'Abandoned Housing: Exploring Lessons From Baltimore.'" Housing Policy Debate. 12(3), 449-55. Abstract: "For most cities, the possibility of transforming unused property into community and city assets is as yet hypothetical. Fiscal constraints limit the amount of land acquisition, relocation, and demolition that cities can undertake. Private investors, unsure of which neighborhoods have a chance of becoming self‐sustaining, are reluctant to take risks in untested markets. Cities need to create citywide planning strategies for land aggregation and neighborhood stabilization and to develop analyses of the risks and opportunities associated with redevelopment opportunities in specific markets. Research seems sorely needed. Although the policy world cannot and will not stand still waiting for academics to design the perfect study or to collect all the data to model the potential effects of various policy options and investments, analysis that can play a more immediately supportive role can and should be done now." Also view: Cohen, James R. (2001). "Abandoned Housing: Exploring Lessons from Baltimore." Housing Policy Debate. 12(3), 415-48

Kühn, Manfred & Heike Liebmann (2007). "Strategies for Urban Regeneration - The Transformation of Cities in Northern England and Eastern Germany." Restructuring Eastern Germany. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g273215603gtg568/