CHOOSING DUNKIRK

Dunkirk, NY

How should a small city address soft market conditions and problem properties?

SUMMARY


The City of Dunkirk chose czb to help the community understand the scale of its "zombie property" problem and to provide the data and tools necessary to prioritize resources and address the underlying forces that result in concentrations of vacant and distressed properties. Working with a committee of community volunteers who assessed the condition of every residential property in the city, czb pulled together diverse datasets to identify three distinct types of problem properties and tailored intervention strategies for each.


Data and Strategy Support Further Planning


Working with this zombie property typology and a complete assessment of housing market strength at the block level, czb designed an intervention framework tailored to the City's financial capacity and geared towards helping Dunkirk's neighborhoods compete for regional housing demand. The data and strategy czb produced became critical foundational content for a subsequent comprehensive plan.

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