Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2011

Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2011 - Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to carry out a demonstration program, under multiyear cooperative agreements with local governments meeting certain criteria (or consortia of them), to encourage and test innovative vacant property reclamation and urban infrastructure renewal strategies in older industrial cities, their suburbs, and metropolitan areas with a history of severe population and employment loss, blight, and decay caused by vacant properties.

Limits such agreements to local governments experiencing: (1) at least 15% population loss since 1970, or (2) prolonged population, income, and employment loss resulting in substantial levels of housing vacancies and abandonments concentrated in more than one neighborhood or geographic area within a jurisdiction or jurisdictions.

Specifies as vacant property and program capacity activities establishment of: (1) local or regional land banks; (2) recovered building materials reuse and recycling infrastructure, facilities, and technical support; (3) local government purchasing requirements for deconstruction to make use of existing building materials stock in new and rehabilitation construction; and (4) the ability of state and local courts and administrative agencies to address problems caused by vacant and abandoned properties, and to facilitate their transfer to public control under a local or regional land bank.

Enumerates other related activities, including: (1) expansion and improvement of code enforcement capabilities; (2) development of data and information systems such as comprehensive real property systems, early warning systems, and vacant property inventory and tracking systems; and (3) amendment or reform of state and local property tax foreclosure procedures.

Specifies stabilization, design, development, reuse, and planning and policy innovation activities. Prohibits the use of grant funds for specified other activities, including: (1) demolition of public housing or historic properties, or (2) clean-up or redevelopment of brownfield sites.

Requires an applicant local government or consortium to establish a regeneration plan for the community or region.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to local governments (and consortia of them) for development of regeneration plans and for sustainability demonstration projects.

Directs the Secretary to convene a Federal Interagency Regeneration Communities Coordinating Council to develop federal agency support plans for communities receiving such grants.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov