SAGINAW, MI -- A film camera, a water bottle and a McDonald's coffee cup litter the fresh snow of a late winter snowstorm.
Near these items, a pair of squirrels are chasing each other. Elsewhere, a cat with tufted hair scratches at a tree before eyeing suspiciously and running off.
A neighbor refers to this half acre on Saginaw's West Side as "the field." It is situated in the center of a residential block and was once, some three years ago, furnished with homes as well. Several bricks resting against a tree seem to verify its past.
The scene is not unusual in Saginaw. They are the grassy grave markers of demolished blighted homes. Within the city, they number almost 3,000 vacant plots owned by the Saginaw County Land Bank.
Though they no longer sustain dilapidated houses which pose danger, the plots come with their own problems: they're off the tax rolls and, if not maintained, are habitats for nuisance animals and mosquitoes.
In late March, a woman new to Saginaw sought to turn "the field," a collection of three vacant plots in the 1200 block of Greenwich, into a community garden.
Heather Boyd was prepared before applying. She spent $70 on soil testing and reached out to the neighborhood association, Michigan State University Extension and the Ezekiel Project, a community organizing group, to help get the project off the ground.
The goal, the public health worker said, is to be of benefit to at least one child.
"As part of living in a new place and wanting to make Saginaw my home, I wanted to find a project that would help my community where I could make a difference," Boyd said. "Working in a community that is low income and underserved that has many food access issues, I felt very strongly that this would be a project that would help out community cohesion."
She heard back from the The Saginaw County Land Bank in the first week of April.
They denied her application.
"I was called and told they wouldn't be selling me the property and they wouldn't state why," Boyd said. "They were not up for negotiations about it. They said they would not be selling that piece of property or any piece of property but would be interesting in leasing and never got back to me."
Boyd said leasing is an issue for the project she envisioned. To have neighbors, organizations and others invest time and work into their garden plots and then, one day, have them taken away, is not acceptable, she said.
'Making predictions'
Spring flowers burst through a layer of April snow in the empty lots at 1215 Greenwich St. in Saginaw on Monday, April 17, 2018.
Boyd's predicament is not an isolated incident, according to Cornelius Phelps III, a community organizer at the Ezekiel Project who deals with land use and environmental issues.
Phelps said he's aware of roughly a dozen other cases like Boyd's, where an application to purchase land bank property is denied with little explanation.
According to Saginaw County Treasurer Tim Novak, who chairs the land bank, Boyd was denied because Michigan requires adjacent landowners to purchase vacant lots where abandoned homes were demolished using Hardest Hit grant funds.
"We can't sell these properties, because she's not adjacent," he said. "It puts us in a box to say we're at fault when we're only abiding by the state's rule."
But that's not exactly true.
Mary Townley, vice president of the entity created by Michigan to oversee the distribution of the Hardest Hit funds, said while the state cuts adjacent homeowners a deal on purchasing post-demolition properties, there is no mandate saying the lots can't be bought by others.
In a follow-up interview, Novak walked back the claim that Boyd couldn't purchase the property. The land bank did deny Boyd because she doesn't own neighboring properties, but if neighbors did not want the land, her denied application might be reconsidered, he said.
"The only unknown is what happens if the homeowners don't want it," he said. "Now we're making predictions."
The land bank considers Boyd's case an open file and is actively seeking a viable spot for her project, according to Novak. He said it might've been a miscommunication that this wasn't told to her and vowed to call her personally.
"I've been told this was explained to her," he said. "We don't just like to do a flat-out 'no' with no explanation at all ... Can I say that every single time somebody is going to be happy with the decision being made? Certainly not."
Generally, Novak clarified, it's land bank policy to not sell vacant properties to people who don't live next to or near the lot. That policy is not stated in property purchase applications.
"The success stories we have is that someone living in that neighborhood," he said. "They live there, they're invested in that neighborhood."
The land bank is cautious on selling outside of those guidelines because if a property is sold and later abandoned, it's another three years before it can be foreclosed, Novak said. After that, it'll likely end up in the land bank -- and back to square one.
The land bank's inventory has stabilized in recent years, with roughly just as many properties taken in as sold, Novak said.
Phelps, with the Ezekiel project, hopes the land bank clearly defines and publicizes what makes a person qualified to purchase land bank property.
"It's understandable that the land bank cannot sell every piece of property to every Jack and Jill who walks in," Phelps said. "But at the end of the day, what people can do to put themselves in a position to buy should be public. There should be a map of how to get there.
"When you're saying we want our neighborhoods to be better, we want to get rid of blighted property, why aren't residents empowered to make those choices for their own neighborhoods?"
Properties and procedure
The border between empty lots at 1215 Greenwich St. and an old garage as shown in Saginaw on Monday, April 17, 2018.
Currently, there are 32 properties listed for sale on the land bank's website. Each of the properties has a home atop it.
The properties Boyd sought to turn into a community garden were acquired by the Saginaw County Treasurer's Office through foreclosure in early 2013 and late 2012. The properties were then transferred to the Saginaw County Land Bank.
There's no listed guidelines on how a person can purchase any of the almost 3,000 vacant plots across the city.
"The land bank is not required to sell all properties it owns, and may withhold properties from sale at the land bank manager's discretion," according to the land bank FAQ section.
Some of those discretions, Novak said, comes down to what the municipality wants and whether they think a project is better suited elsewhere.
Phelps said he's in talks with the land bank to hold a forum where residents can get definite answers.
"I think the land bank is really important, and I think there's a lot of good things they can do and are starting to do," he said. "This is a potentially great institution that we want more input in and communication from."
Won't you be my neighbor
After Boyd's application was denied, Novak said the land bank sent notices to adjacent property owners inquiring if they'd want to buy the plots at a discounted rate.
While neighbor Raul Landin said he hasn't yet received the notice, buying the next door property is something he's thought about. He sought information on how to do so last year but never went through with it.
"I'd fence it in, have a bigger yard for the family, maybe get a dog," Landin said.
That type of property expansion is what the land bank's side-lot program is all about. It puts vacant plots back on the tax roll with little worry of another foreclosure, gives homeowners more breathing room and is one less plot the county and city has to maintain.
Quite a few of the vacant properties obtained by the land bank have been sold in this way, Novak said.
The issue, he said, is getting adjacent property owners aware they can buy the lot next door for a pittance.
Landin was unaware the neighboring plots were eyed for a community garden, but said he'd pitch in if that's what comes of it.
"If I don't buy it, I don't have a problem with putting a garden on it," he said. "That's awesome. It makes the neighborhood look less trashy."
Since the dilapidated homes next door were demolished, grass has grown at times to waist level and dead trees left unchecked, Landin said. In the April snow storm, a branch from a tree Landin previously warned the city about fell and took down some wire.
"It was up to the people around here to keep up on cutting the grass," he said. "If that was my property and I would've let it go that bad, they would've fined me for it."
Cost of maintenance
Zachary Branigan of Bay City, executive director of the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy, piles debris he found in a lot in the 1400 block of Atwater in Saginaw on Thursday afternoon, June 29, 2017.
To fully maintain each and every one of the land bank's properties is expensive business.
"We have worked with the city in a lot of these areas to clear the right of way and three feet off of the sidewalk," Novak said. "If we mowed every lot that was vacant in the entire city, that would cost $1 million."
The land bank has gotten maintenance help in the past year from the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy through the organization's "Pollinator Project." The conservancy clears blighted plots and mows down the weeds and then plants wild flowers and pollinators in an effort to beautify neighborhoods, deter crime, cut down on local government maintenance costs and reconnect residents with nature.
The conservancy launches a three-year plan this week in Saginaw to add 200 acres of blight removal to its portfolio. At the end of the three-year program, conservancy officials estimate it will tackle about 260 acres of blighted land.
"The field" is located in Saginaw's Southwest neighborhood association. As the name states, it encompasses the residential area south of Gratiot and west of the Saginaw River.
The amount of vacant lots in the neighborhood makes summer a busy season for Southwest neighborhood association president Ric Russell.
"There are 516 vacant lots just in my neighborhood that I mow down," Russell said. "If somebody is willing to come in make it one less lot that I have to take care of, I'm all for it."
"When you got people that are willing to take care of them for you, don't sit here and give them a hard time."
Boyd is currently in talks with a private property owner in the Southwest neighborhood to secure land for the community garden.