Council President Darrell Clarke has advanced amendments to
the long-anticipated land bank bill that includes changes supporters of the
bill have called “deal-breakers.”
Clarke circulated the proposals to Council members via email
late Wednesday, on the eve of the Thanksgiving weekend.
(View / download the original document below)
If adopted, the effect of the amendments would be to inject
the need for Council approval in a number of steps before a vacant property is
acquired and sold.
Among them is a provision that would require Council to
approve not only the disposition (a fancy word for “sale”) of every piece of
land but also to approve, by signature, every transfer of land into the land
bank in the first place.
The purpose of the land bank, whose primary sponsor and main
champion is 7th District Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, is to cut through
the bureaucratic mess that’s characterized the acquisition and sale of land by
the city for decades.
With so many hurdles to clear, the process of selling a
vacant property can take more that three years, even for lots owned by city
agencies. The land bank board would have the power to acquire take ownership
over the 10,000 vacant properties own by city agencies and also purchase vacant
property on its own. The idea is to speed the process to more quickly put vacant
and blighted land back into productive use.
But the bill has become a source of conflict between Sanchez
and Clarke, which co-sponsored the legislation.
With only two sessions left before Council recesses — just
enough time to pass any new amendments after first and second readings — the
two have been at loggerheads over several provisions. One is an amendment
introduced by Clarke just before the bill passed out of committee, which
re-introduced a requirement that Council members not only approve sales of
property by resolution, but that sales also be approved by the city’s Vacant
Property Review Committee, whose agenda is set by a chair appointed by the
Council President. The review committee is part of the current process; backers
of the bill had hoped to eliminate this step.
Critics of the amendment — including Councilwoman Sanchez —
said it added an unnecessary hurdle to the process of acquiring and selling
land. Nonetheless, the bill’s supporters, notably the coalition calling itself
the Philly Land Bank Alliance, seemed willing to accept a continued role for
the VPRC if the bill itself passed.
Clarke’s new proposals, if brought to the Council floor next
Thursday, could change that equation.
The amendments Clarke has circulated would give Council
members more power over the process and insert several new requirements –critics would call them hurdles, Clarke
would call them oversight – in the
process of acquiring property through the land bank.
One significant one says that the land bank could acquire
land only “subject to the prior written consent of the District Councilperson”
— meaning that Council members would have the power to veto not only the sale
of land but the land bank’s ability to acquire it in the first place.
It’s not the first time Clarke has floated this idea, and
supporters of the land bank have so far balked at it. Rick Sauer, a spokesman
for the Land Bank Alliance, said earlier in the day (unaware of Clarke’s latest
proposals) that while the alliance was willing to compromise on some of its
positions, requiring Council approval of acquisitions was a bad idea and would
hamper the land bank’s ability to act quickly to acquire properties before they
were sold at public auction in a sheriff’s sale.
Other amendments proposed by the Council president yesterday
include:
• A requirement that all proceeds from property sales be
“subject to appropriation by Council.”
•A requirement that the city’s finance director pre-approve
the land bank’s clearing of municipal tax liens on properties.
•A requirement that the Vacant Property Review Committee
post 10 days notice of public hearings and post its agenda online. State
sunshine laws already require notice of public hearing.
Land bank advocates had no immediate comment. AxisPhilly was
unable to reach Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez for comment Wednesday
night.
Jane Roh, a spokesperson for the Council President, said in
an email that the document was circulated as the basis of a conversation among
Council members.
“Council President Clarke respects his colleagues on Council
and always discusses proposed amendments,” Roh wrote in an email, “in order to
receive their input and to build consensus.”
Source: AxisPhilly.com
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