PHILADELPHIA As City Council's 2013 calendar nears its end,
the bill that was supposed to create a land bank to dispose of Philadelphia's
bloated inventory of abandoned and vacant properties is caught in a tug-of-war.
The fight between land bank supporters and some forces on
Council seems to be boiling down to two words: shall and may.
In the amended version of the land bank bill that its
primary sponsor, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez, plans to introduce
Thursday, may replaces shall.
And if that version doesn't fly, the bill may be doomed for
the year. After Thursday's meeting, Council only has two meetings left in
December.
It's no secret that the existing process for dealing with
the 40,000 vacant and abandoned properties littering the city with blight needs
an overhaul. The idea of a land bank is to streamline the acquisition of vacant
property - whether by a developer who wants to build condos, or a neighborhood
group that wants to plant a garden.
But some land bank supporters think the proposal still
contains too much red tape: a person who wants a vacant city lot would need an
OK from the land bank's board, plus a Council resolution - and a green light
from a Council advisory panel.
That last step was supposed to be dropped from the bill. But
during a committee hearing, Council President Darrell L. Clarke inserted the
40-year-old advisory board, the Vacant Property Review Committee - known as the
VPRC - back into the bill.
Clarke's move caught many by surprise, including Quiñones
Sánchez. She has fought for years to get a land bank and feels the goal line is
near.
"His amendments are deal-breakers," Quiñones
Sánchez said Tuesday. "I'm at the five-yard line."
Her latest amended version allows Council members, as she
put it, to "opt in or opt out." If a land bank decision involves land
in their district, they can insist on sending that decision to the VPRC - or
not.
"My colleagues want to see us go through a process that
is simplified," Quiñones Sánchez said.
She plans to canvass Council on Wednesday to try to gather
support for her amended bill.
Attempts to reach Clarke late Tuesday for comment were
unsuccessful. He has called the VPRC the "most transparent" step in
the process, in which the public and officials are at the same table to make a
decision on acquisition or use of land.
The VPRC meets monthly in the Council caucus room - dimly
lit and with bad acoustics. Members sit around a table and call on people who
represent the properties on the agenda.
That agenda is nowhere to be found online, and people who
attend are usually those invited by the staff at the city's housing office
because the property they want will be up for discussion, said office spokesman
Paul Chrystie. Typically, those who get a hearing before the VPRC have received
a blessing for their project from their district Council member.
"It's not always easy for someone who is not
politically savvy," said Amy Laura Cahn, a lawyer with the Public Interest
Law Center of Philadelphia who has worked with urban farmers to acquire
properties through the VPRC. "Not everyone knows how to work the system."
Land bank advocates see the VPRC step as needlessly
duplicating what the land bank board would do: allow Council- and
administration-appointed officials to weigh in.
The bank's board would be named in part by the mayor and in
part by Council; some members would have to be from community groups. Quiñones
Sánchez said the list of people to serve on an initial board would not be ready
until Council's Dec. 5 meeting - leaving the Dec. 12 meeting as the last chance
to get the bill enacted this year.
If the bill waits till spring, it could get bogged down by
budget hearings.
State Rep. John Taylor (R., Phila.), sponsor of the state
bill that enabled Philadelphia to create a land bank, has said he was
disappointed the bank isn't open yet, and sorry the proposal now includes the
VPRC. "The less hands, the better," he said.
On Tuesday, the Land Bank Alliance, which includes
nonprofits, Realtors, and others, held a phone conference to lobby for prompt
passage. The group also argued for taking the VPRC out of the picture.
Contacted Tuesday evening, Rick Sauer, who heads the
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations and often speaks
for the alliance, said he had not seen the wording of Quiñones Sanchez's latest
version but thought it an improvement on the current bill.
"If we can't get VPRC out for everyone, but we can get
it out for some," he said, "then that's better."
Source: Philly.com
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