Small scale example.
The short street I grew up on was mostly single family or duplex houses that was dominated by this ugly looking 6 apartment building that was poorly maintained by the local slum lord. After he died the building was condemned and torn down.
The initial plans of his kids for the land was to build a gas station. When they tried to rezone the land the neighbors fought it pointing out that they owed tens of thousands in back taxes. The city eventually seized the land and we brokered a deal that dramatically changed the neighborhood.
Being the last lot on the block made the plan easy. A 15 foot wide strip of land was sold to the sole abutter to expand his back yard and allow him to build a driveway. The loss of apartment building tenants and the abutter gaining a driveway was a huge improvement to the parking situation on our narrow urban street.
The remaining piece of land was too small to develop under zoning laws and became a neighborhood park maintained by the community.
A local lumberyard donated the lumber to build planter boxes while several donations provided trees, shrubs and grass seed. 20 years later it is a lush green space at the core of the neighborhood.
Property values on our street increased 80% in the next 15 years. More importantly they only dropped 10% during the recent down turn while much of the city saw a 20% to 30% drop in property values.
All of the real estate agents say it is quality of life that helps the values.
