In 2015 Mayor Lloyd Winnecke recognized that Evansville, like many other cities was suffering a crisis of residential blight in many older neighborhoods and the need for more infill housing in the city core.  He directed the Department of Metropolitan Development to explore these issues and develop a plan to address them. For the full report, please see the attachment below.

After months of research, meetings, consultations with experts in the field of land banking, the idea of forming a land bank to address neighborhood blight in Evansville was born.  However, the state of Indiana did not enact land bank enabling legislation until July 1, 2016; Senate Enrolled Act No. 232 which added to Indiana Code 36-7-38 allowing the establishment of local land banks.

On July 25, 2016 the Evansville City Council passed ordinance G-2016-23, establishing an Evansville land bank, initially operated under the direction of the Evansville Brownfields Corporation, until such time as a new land bank entity could be formed under the new state statute.  The Evansville Land Bank Corp. subsequently filed Articles of Incorporation with the Indiana Secretary of State on September 13, 2016 and held its initial meeting on January 27, 2017.  The entity's non-profit status as a 501 (c) 3 tax exempt organization was approved by the Internal Revenue Service on December 3, 2018.       

The Evansville Land Bank Corp. is governed by a nine member board of directors appointed by various parties as dictated by state land bank code and the organization bylaws.