MUNCIE LAND BANK STRATEGIC PLAN
City of Muncie, IN
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How can a newly formed land bank focus its work and support its community's comprehensive plan?
SUMMARY
The Muncie Land Bank (MLB) was created to help the Muncie community address blight and vacancy. It had been incorporated by the State of Indiana, received its not-for-profit status from the IRS, had a dedicated board of community volunteers, and a full-time executive director. But how should a land bank with limited capacity and operating in a community with considerable need go about its business? What would make a meaningful difference and help it build a sustainable base of support?
At the same time that the MLB was asking these questions, czb had just been hired to create a new comprehensive plan for the City of Muncie and Delaware County. Seeing an opportunity, MLB retained czb to develop its new strategic plan in a manner that would help to align its strategy with a wider community strategy.
Strategies grounded by an understanding of property and market conditions
czb's work for the MLB started with a detailed exploration of neighborhood conditions in Muncie and how those conditions should influence strategies and interventions. Specific strategy types were identified for stronger markets, middle markets, and softer markets, each type with its own strategic and resource requirements. For a small organization with only so much capacity to intervene in any given year, it was critical to define what the MLB would be trying to accomplish in different types of neighborhoods, and how that work would line up with larger community goals emerging from the comprehensive planning process.
Making an Impact
It became clear during the planning process that the MLB would run the risk of being pulled in a number of different directions by community stakeholders with their own expectations for the land bank. If this happened, and the MLB's limited resources were scattered, it would be difficult to realize tangible progress in any given location. The MLB's new strategic plan identifies clear roles for the MLB to play within Muncie's neighborhoods, especially as a partner with a wide range of other entities with their own skillsets and roles to play.
Along with the TogetherDM comprehensive plan, the MLB strategic plan lays out clear outcomes to achieve in Muncie's neighborhoods and provides guidance on how MLB and other organizations can work together, and pull in the same direction, to achieve sustainably healthier blocks and neighborhoods.
Muncie Land Bank Strategic Plan
The strategic plan for the Muncie Land Bank outlines how the organization will pursue its support of Muncie's new comprehensive plan.
The emergence of a strategic framework for neighborhood improvement in Muncie offers a valuable opportunity to align the Land Bank's very first strategic plan with the more broadly-based work that will be needed throughout the community. By placing the land bank within this larger strategic context, this plan will make it clear that the Muncie Land Bank is not the sole but rather one of several essential tools that will be needed to improve the vitality of neighborhoods throughout Muncie.
RELATED WORK
TogetherDM Comprehensive Plan and Strategic Investment Plan
DELAWARE COUNTY AND CITY OF MUNCIE, IN2021
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