We are seeing first hand why the land bank may not be as
efficient as it could be,” Aviva
Kapust, executive director of the Village of Arts and Humanities, told the
Philadelphia Land Bank board in a public hearing on January 5. “Two days ago,
we were informed that two of our properties in the middle of the art park, two
of those privately-owned tax delinquent parcels which were meant to not be on
the Sheriff's Sale list were mistakenly added to it. And they were purchased.”
Kapust is well aware of the dangers vacancy holds and the
racist public policies that spawned it.
Over the last several decades the Village transformed
vacant lots and abandoned buildings in North Philadelphia into a string of art
parks to mitigate the damage.
The Philadelphia Land Bank is designed to cut through the
kind of complex legalities that bind much of the vacant land her organization
occupies. The land bank promises to rationalize the vagaries of the city’s land
sale process, prioritize different uses, and put vacant property back to
productive use.
After Kapust spoke with land bank representatives, two
properties occupied by the Village were removed from Sheriff's Sale and placed
at the top of the Land Bank’s acquisitions list, with the intention that they
would be transferred to the organization for a nominal fee.
Go to PlanPhilly.com for why the administration says the
addition of 1,600 properties to the land bank has shifted plans.
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