Throughout late 2015 and early 2016, a group of civic, business, and public sector leaders from throughout Memphis have been gathering to address the crisis of blight in the community. The true purpose of their meeting was to formally initiate a process that will culminate in Spring 2016 with the delivery of the Memphis Blight Elimination Compact – a single document, crafted, understood, and committed to by all relevant public and private-sector actors that will guide how the community abates vacant and abandoned property.
"While other major American cities have adopted blight elimination plans and frameworks, Memphis will still be the first city to adopt a comprehensive blight elimination compact," said Steve Barlow of Neighborhood Preservation, Inc., which has been coordinating the project. "This compact is intended to serve as both a playbook and a game plan for current and future blight abatement actions – something we can pass along from year to year and share with the community at large."
The Memphis Blight Elimination Compact is being coordinated by the staff of Neighborhood Preservation, Inc., a nonprofit organization conceived out the recognition that citizens and local government needed a more aggressive and focused private-sector partner to work on the complex legal issues around blight abatement and move nuisance properties back into productive use.
The development of the Compact is being led by national experts Joe Schilling and Kermit Lind, in collaboration with a steering committee representing Memphis’ grassroots, public sector, and business communities
. The Blight Elimination Compact will be unveiled to the public at the
Memphis Blight Elimination Summit on
March 17 at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
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