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Hall Monitor: Land Plan (part one) - The city's close to unveiling its long-awaited plan for disposing of vacant land
The city is apparently within days or weeks of releasing a comprehensive plan for vacant land use. For anyone as obsessed with vacant land politics and policy as we've been over the past year, it's been a long wait.
Hall Monitor: Land Plan (part one) — The city's close to unveiling its long-awaited plan for disposing of vacant land
This is the first in a series of posts examining issues around the Nutter administration’s soon-to-be-released comprehensive plan for disposing of city-owned vacant land. For updates, check back on Naked City and follow Isaiah Thompson on Twitter.
The city is apparently within days or weeks of releasing a comprehensive plan for vacant land use. For anyone as obsessed with vacant land politics and policy as we’ve been over the past year, it’s been a long wait: A task force comprised of members of the city’s Redevelopment Authority (recently renamed the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, or PRA) and the city’s Managing Director’s Office, have been meeting with various officials and members of Council for something like two years now. The plan was originally said to be nearly ready last winter, and then last fall. After that, things seemed quiet. But now, the final plan is almost ready.
What’s in it? We don’t entirely know yet: your own Hall Monitor obtained an earlier draft of the plan, which was circulated on a public list-serv last December, but officials in the Managing Director’s Office say that was just one of several drafts and that some changes have been made.
(CP asked, of course, to see the current draft, but the MDO says it won’t comment on particulars until the plan is finalized).
Nontheless, conversations with Deputy Managing Director Bridget Collins-Greenwald and other sources indicate that many of the main elements outlined in the draft remain in place (you can read more about this in my Hall Monitor column in this week’s City Paper):
The new plan will:
— Recognize different uses of vacant land, some market-based and others (like green space, affordable housing, etc.) which benefit the community.
— Allow for different pricing of vacant property based on its use: property may be sold directly, bid on an open market, or sold at reduced rate in certain cases.
— Create a “front door” for anyone interested in buying any city-owned vacant land for sale. The city’s inventory will be listed on a web site, which will also allow the public to electronically indicate interest in a particular property and begin the process of bidding to acquire it.
— Contain various mechanisms to enforce the timely completion of redevelopment agreements.
— Reinstate the semi-discontinued practice of letting residents who live adjacent to vacant, city-owned lots acquire those lots as side-yards.
— Allow for urban and community gardens. (more on that to come soon).
The new plan will not:
— Do away with “Coucilmanic Prerogative” — in this case, the requirement that all such land sales or transfers be approved by resolution of the district Council person. Because Council members almost always defer to the district representative, this means each district Councilperson has a de facto veto power over any land transaction.
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