Land banking is a strategy to acquire underutilized land for community and public purposes, particularly for affordable housing. Land banking can ensure that more land–including key community assets–will be in public hands rather than going to private, market-rate development.

For the last several years, Sound Communities has been working on a proposal to authorize Housing Benefit Districts (HBD) at the state level, which aim to scale up land banking around high-capacity transit stations. HBDs create the legal, planning, and funding apparatus that cities can use for land banking and community planning, as part of a proactive approach to create more affordable housing and more total housing, fight displacement, and create complete and equitable communities near major transit stops.

Join Sound Communities during this webinar to hear more about how Housing Benefit Districts work, the new tools that have been developed to help jurisdictions plan for HBDs, and our strategy for the next legislative session.