A Plan that Bears Fruit: A Community Land Trust and Other Tools For Neighborhood Revitalization in the Fruit Belt

Abstract

On December 1, 2015, the City of Buffalo’s Common Council passed a resolution placing a moratorium on the sale of city-owned lots in the Fruit Belt neighborhood. The Fruit Belt includes the area enclosed by Cherry Street, Jefferson Avenue, Best Street, Main Street, Goodell Street, and Michigan Avenue – a neighborhood where the City of Buffalo owns over 200 vacant lots. The City promised not to sell lots to developers until “a duly approved strategic plan” had been created. According to the resolution, the plan must protect Fruit Belt residents from “the adverse effects of development” and include the residents’ vision for “Fruit Belt revitalization.”