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City finally announces vacant land policy (And nearly launches beta web interface)
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City finally announces vacant land policy (And nearly launches beta web interface)
Follow Isaiah Thompson on Twitter for updates on the city's new vacant land policies.
The city today unveiled its much-anticipated comprehensive plan for how it will sell and dispose of its massive inventory of vacant land. City officials also announced the almost-launching of a "beta" web interface that will serve as the city's "front door" for prospective buyers of vacant land, and administered by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (formerly the RDA).
As we've written about extensively, it's been a long wait. When Mayor Michael Nutter took office, and appointed former RDA Director Terry Gillen to the helm of that agency, the city's vacant land policy was something of a shambles: policies on sales prices and conditions were vague; enforcement of redevelopment contracts was often non-existent; and the RDA, under former leadership, had kept many of its records on … paper.
The idea was to fix all of that, first by essentially imposing a moratorium on the sale of land for less than "fair market value" (except in the case of affordable housing) while the administration straightened out its records, established new policies, and worked its way through a backlog of old land deals.
But it's been a while — at least a year-and-a-half, since a working group was formed to create a comprehensive policy — and frustration over the city's hesitancy in making vacant land available has been growing, noticeably in the form of various bills in City Council and a push by community groups and Council members, especially Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, to establish a land bank.
In a meeting with reporters today, PRA director Jon Carpenter and Deputy Managing Director Bridget Collins-Greenwald revealed the fruits of the nearly two years now that they and other members of a working group have been coming up a new finalized land policy and the beta version (we were asked, several times, to mention the 'beta' bit) of the web-based "front door" access system.
None of this is online yet, but your faithful Hall Monitor went ahead and scanned the paper version of the new comprehensive vacant land policy for you, doodles and all.
[Download the finalized vacant land policy in (non-text) pdf format here]
The comprehensive policy describes how land will be sold for different uses, and which uses qualify for less-than-fair-maket prices. It re-officializes the city's side lot program, allowing homeowners to acqure lots adjacent to their houses, and gives official definitions for community garden and urban agriculture uses of vacant land.
The new site allows prospective buyers to search for vacant properties, apply to purchase them, track their progress, and see an upfront price for the property (that might be subject to change).
Those prices are being determined by an internal mass-assessment project — and aren't going to be listed for ("hopefully," PRA director John Carpenter emphasized) a few weeks. Users can file applications as soon as the new site goes live (it hadn't as of publication time but was expected to at any moment), but might also want to wait until the official launch of the site in June.
What's different in the new system (and what isn't)? A quick breakdown:
New:
— Users can search for vacant properties via a map or by filtering data by street, zip code, etc.
— Prospective buyers can see prices upfront, apply to purchase on-line, and track the status of their application as it moves through whichever agency owns the land.
— Land will be sold for below "fair market value" for a few uses other than affordable housing, as was previously the case. These uses include: side lots, economic and community development projects, community gardens and urban farms (more on that to come), and for other uses restricted by a self-amortizing second mortgage (again: we'll get to that in a later post).
— Pretty cool new map of 9,000 vacant properties for sale by PRA, PHDC, and Public Property.
— Side yard sales are back!
Not so new:
— The current system retains the practice of requiring City Council's authorization of land transfers. Because of Council tradition, the body almost always defers to the District Council person, giving that individual effective veto power over all land deals in his or her district.
— Individuals will be able to track their own applications to purchase vacant land; they (or the rest of the public), however, won't be able to other peoples' applications or the status thereof. Similarly, the PRA will keep track of the reason — Councilmanic prerogative, a lack of response from the buyer, whatever — for a terminated redevelopment agreement; but the public won't get to see that information.
— While PRA is the new "front door" to buying land, buyers still have to navigate the (often entirely different) processes of up to three different agencies.
— Side yard sales are back!
Definitely an improvement.
Why still is the city protecting tax deadbeats rights to buy more city property? Who are these people?
Note the rule reads that someone is disqualified only if the city has successfully completed foreclosure proceedings against them. Since the city doesn't actually go after deadbeats, they get an out here.
In other words, just owing 10 or 20 years of delinquent taxes on a few dozen properties is good with this rule. As long as the city hasn't gone after you AND won in the last five years.
Who are these deadbeats that have such control and influence over city government? There has to be a story here.
— samac
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