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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Philly's Vacant Land Problem Costs the City -- and Residents -- Big Time

Philly’s persistent abandoned property problem has reduced the value of your home by an average of $8,000, according to a new study.

The report from Econsult Corporation puts Philadelphia’s blighted land troubles into stark economic terms, estimating that the city’s more than 40,000 vacant or abandoned properties rack up $20 million in annual maintenance costs, rob the city of $2 million in annual tax revenues and reduce property values across the city.

To read a PDF of the report click here.

“Vacancy is a citywide problem. No neighborhood escapes the problem of vacancy,” said Richard Voith, of Econsult, who did the study on behalf of the Redevelopment Authority and the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC).

Armed with a new study about an old problem, the Nutter administration is still figuring out what to do next, after a series of anti-blight programs, including former Mayor John Street’s $296 million Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, have not successfully turned things around.

Mayor Nutter has put Managing Director Rich Negrin in charge of a task force charged with analyzing the city’s vacant land management and offering recommendations. Negrin’s Chief of Staff Brian Abernathy yesterday acknowledged that initially the task seemed daunting.

“When we first started to take a look at this over the summer, overwhelmed is the way to describe how Rich and everyone felt,” Abernathy said.

Abernathy said city officials are working on key questions, like how to manage foreclosures, bundle lots for development and clean up vacant land. He said the city is already working on a master list of all the city-owned vacant property, as well as a list of the privately held abandoned property.

“At the very least, we need to make sure there’s a seemless entry point (for developers or interested buyers),” Abernathy said.

Dealing with blighted land in Philadelphia is a complicated task. Only about 25 percent of the vacant or abandoned land is city owned — and those properties are split between several agencies. About half of the privately-held properties owe back taxes. Sometimes they go to sheriff’s sale, but often they just decay.

Abernathy and other officials said they hadn’t zeroed in on a plan for vacant land yet. One example that has been heralded is in Genesee County, home to Flint, the government set up a land bank, which takes control of abandoned and tax-foreclosed properties and decides the best usage for the city – be it to sell to a developer, give to a community group or maintain the land itself.

But officials and stakeholders won't yet commit to putting all the land management under one agency.

“The city needs to figure out what makes sense,” said Rick Sauer, executive director of PACDC.

Mayor Street made reducing blight a central goal of his administration, creating the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The program leveraged $296 million in bond money, with plans to tear down crumbling buildings, package cleared lots together and get them to developers.

Street’s administration reduced the number of blighted buildings and encouraged development, but critics noted that it fell far short of his goal to demolish 14,000 buildings.

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 5:00 PM Permalink | 8 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:36 PM, 11/10/2010

Not to be captain obvious, but one of the biggest things that will help reduce the city's abandonment problem is to generate more demand for housing. While most areas of the city have at least some abandoned properties, the problems is mostly concentrated in the neighborhoods that nobody wants to live in due to the city's overarching problems of crime, poverty and a lack of jobs. If the glut of abandoned properties starts to decrease, it will likely be a sign that progress is being made on these other elephants in the room. Which isn't to say that the city shouldn't do a better job of keeping track of these properties, as suggested in the article. Demand will mean nothing if developers can't get at the property because it's owned by somebody who stopped paying taxes and moved to Florida... or their children, who may not even care whether the property still exists, or who owns it.

— SirEdward

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:25 PM, 11/10/2010

This is interesting. As I understood it, the NTI program had lofty goals, accomplished a great deal which did spur private development in several neighborhoods, but was considered a beginning not an end. In these communities, most of which have experienced disinvestment for more than 50 years, completely turning them around in 8 years with $300 million would have been impossible, but the investment was something that moved some communities, positioned others, and required the attention of the next few administrations to fully address the years of neglect and lack of investment. That we got a mayor with no insight, no vision, no plan, and no attention to neighborhoods, simply resulted in a failure to seize the opportunity to build on the platform that was begun. In fact, instead of assessing what worked and what didn't and making course corrections, our mayor chose to dismantle, good or bad, anything created or started by his predecessor. One forgets that his person, Gillan, thankfully removed from her position, froze further investment, did not seek stimulus funds to continue the work and wasted two years doing audits that led to absolutely no confirmation of any wrongdoing. This mayor, and his appointees, are visionless and useless. We need new leadership.

— vance13

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:51 PM, 11/10/2010

SELL THEM TO COMMUNITY GROUPS FOR PUBLIC HOUSING. THAT WILL SAVE THE CITY FROM MAINTANENCE ON THE PROPERTIES. OR GIVE THEM TO THE COMMUNITY FOR GARDENS OR PLAY AREAS FOR CHILDREN. I HAVE ONE NEXT TO ME AND I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE IT FOR OUR COMMUNITY GARDEN!

— pretender9763

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:09 AM, 11/11/2010

vance13 - I have seen that new residential construction in various areas of the City, not just two or three homes, but blocks of new homes. Sounds like something very worthy for in-depth analysis and coverage in a series of articles the print media. It be interesting to have someone independently assess NTI and if it were providing a foundation point for improvement and direction why it was dismantled.

— ElecFact

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:19 AM, 11/11/2010

Does the City even have a single source data file of all of the vacant property by street address - whether owned by one of the many agencies or by privately owned?

— ElecFact

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:16 AM, 11/11/2010

Waiting for the City to figure out what makes sense will take until the next millenium.

— Wilhelm Von Humboldt

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:10 AM, 11/11/2010

The problem with NTI was the execution. Money was basically allocated among the various council districts and each council member dolled out projects and property to their politically connected allies, often for projects of questionable value, or with no return whatsoever, as was the case with some of the more disorganized/incompetent non-profits. The redevelopment effort in the city needs to be more merit-based (I.e. keep elected officials out of making direct decisions on where funding and resources go).

— SirEdward

8 comments

About The Philly Clout Team

Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com

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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.

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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.

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