Vacant and deteriorating properties are a challenge facing communities across the country—but small towns are not powerless to address them. In this episode, Liz from the Center for Community Progress shares practical strategies communities can use to inventory vacant buildings, navigate ownership challenges, and turn neglected properties into opportunities for revitalization. The conversation explores how data, partnerships, and creative thinking can help small towns reclaim the spaces that shape their future.

About Liz: Liz Kozub is an Associate Director for Technical Assistance at the Center for Community Progress. As an experienced project manager and program developer, she has spent the past decade focused on helping communities develop policy solutions, partnerships, and innovative approaches to addressing systemic vacancy.

Kozub draws on extensive experience building interlocal cooperation among underserved communities to support the places the Technical Assistance team serves, with a focus on land banks and code enforcement. Passionate about emboldening local leaders to make a difference in their communities, Kozub has fostered connections between grassroots leaders in community revitalization from Montgomery, Alabama to Reading, Pennsylvania; and helped local official strengthen their arguments for land banks in New Jersey and Indiana.

Prior to joining the Community Progress team, Kozub was an instrumental member of the leadership team to form the Tri-COG Land Bank, a multi-municipal, community-driven land bank in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The Tri-COG Land Bank has since grown to become a national model for land banking in the United States. She also led the establishment of a multi-municipal code enforcement program to support small under-resourced communities.

Kozub received a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International affairs, and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Allegheny College. She is based just outside of Buffalo, New York. In this episode, we cover:

• Why understanding who owns vacant properties is the first step toward solving the problem

• How communities can use code enforcement, land banks, and tax tools to address vacancy

• Why time is the biggest enemy of a vacant building

• Creative ways communities are using arts and community engagement to activate empty spaces

• How small towns can build partnerships to turn vacant properties into new opportunities

Links + Resources Mentioned:

• Example project: Breathing Lights

• Example project: Dear Tamaqua and Tamaqua Area Community Partnership press: Tamaqua praised for arts, culture projects

• Resource: Creative placemaking in vacant properties example projects

• Resource: State of Land Banking Survey Snapshot

• Resource: Financial Impacts of Vacancy

• Report: Reevaluating Code Enforcement

• Event: Community Progress' Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference

• Event/Educational Resources: Community Progress' monthly webinar series

• Services: Technical Assistance Brochure, or reach out to Liz at [email protected]

Want to get your business in front of our audience? We are looking for podcast sponsors! Each season, we feature a select group of Small Business Partners—brands that share our mission to celebrate small-town life and big ideas. With a 4–6% average Facebook engagement rate (well above the industry average), 2,600+ loyal followers, and 45,000 monthly content views, we have an amazing, highly engaged audience of people who can't wait to learn more about you. When we feature you, your story, and your product/service, it's like a friend's recommendation, because it is. Want to know more? Reach out to us at [email protected] We have a membership! Join the GST Club — a virtual support community built for those leading change in small-town America. For $30/month, you'll get twice-monthly live calls with Rebecca, access to a private network of fellow small-town changemakers, replay recordings, frameworks, and early access to GST events. It's for anyone from volunteers and entrepreneurs to city officials who believe small towns deserve big ideas and better leadership. Part think-tank. Part pep-talk. Part creative jam session. All support.

We Want to Hear From You! We really, really do, and if you'll let us, we'd love to feature your actual message just like we did with Terri's (with your permission, of course!) Some of the best parts about radio shows and podcasts are listener call-ins, so we've decided to make those a part of the Growing Small Towns Podcast. We really, really want to hear from you! We're have two "participation dance" elements of the show:

1. "Small town humblebrags": Call in and tell us about something amazing you did in your small town so we can celebrate with you. No win is too small—we want to hear it all, and we will be excessively enthusiastic about whatever it is! You can call in for your friends, too, because giving shout-outs is one of our favorite things.

2. "Solving Your Small-Town People Challenges": Have a tough issue in your community? We want to help. Call in and tell us about your problem, and we'll solve it on an episode of the podcast. Want to remain anonymous? Totally cool, we can be all secretive and stuff. We're suave like that.

If you've got a humblebrag or a tricky people problem, call 701-203-3337 and leave a message with the deets. We really can't wait to hear from you!

Get In Touch Have an idea for a future episode/guest, have feedback or a question, or just want to chat? Email us at [email protected]

Subscribe + Review Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of The Growing Small Towns Show! If the information in our conversations and interviews has helped you in your small town, head out to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify, subscribe to the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver relevant, helpful content, but it will also help us reach even more small-town trailblazers just like you!