Abandoned Philadelphia

In October of 2011, the Department launched a new initiative as, part of a larger program led by the Managing Directors Office and the Finance Directors Office, regarding how both City and privately owned vacant property is bought, sold, and maintained.

The Department identified approximately 25,000 structures in its database that were believed to be vacant because the owner had either obtained a vacant property license, or had been cited for violations that are the likely indicators of vacancy.  The Department mapped these properties, and depending on the market conditions of the overall neighborhood, planned to use a variety of legal tools to hold owners for the state of their properties.

Having identified these properties, the Departments current initiative is characterized by three main objectives.

• Finding the Right Owners: In the past, the City faced difficulties in holding private property owners responsible for the conditions of their blighted or vacant properties. In its current initiative, the Department is using a dedicated team of researchers to cross-reference several databases to find good names and addresses for the owners of vacant properties.
• Utilizing New Enforcement Measures: The Department now enforces the “doors and windows” ordinance passed by Philadelphia City Council that allows the Department to ask the court to find owners $300 per day per opening that is not covered with a functional door or window. In addition, State Act 90 allows the department to ask the court to attach these potentially high dollar fines to owner’s personal property.
• Dedicating Court Time: In the past enforcement, efforts had run into difficulties getting cases into the court system. In its current initiative, the Department has worked alongside with the City of Philadelphia Law Department and Judge Bradley Moss to dedicate court dates exclusively to address vacant cases. This ensures that these cases flow through the legal process quickly.

Through efforts so far, the Department will collect over $1,000,000 in license and permit fees, fines, and unpaid taxes.

via City of Philadelphia: Vacant Property Strategy.

Well, wonder no more. This is another piece of fantastic work by PlanPhillly and Patrick Kerkstra.

City’s “Front Door” Cracks Open

At last, the city’s enormous inventory of mostly vacant surplus land is being made available online for would-be buyers.

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority’s “Front Door” – essentially a database and map of the city’s property holdings, coupled with a streamlined sales process – has been in the works for over a year and a half. Some of it goes live today, albeit in a limited form, on the PRA’s website.

The initiative – which won’t be formally launched until next month – represents the Nutter administration’s most notable achievement to date in Philadelphia’s long-running fight against blight.

There are an estimated 40,000 vacant parcels in Philadelphia, empty lots and abandoned buildings that depress property values, mar neighborhoods and pose safety risks. Of those, more than 12,000 are owned by city-related agencies.

Before the Front Door, would-be buyers of those city owned lots were forced to navigate a confusing bureaucratic thicket of city land-holding agencies with conflicting policies and agendas, without the benefit of a written rulebook.

Now, the Nutter administration contends, developers, non-profits and average residents will be able to easily submit applications to purchase city owned vacant properties through the PRA’s Front Door. And the entire process will be governed by a new policy document (which has been previously reported on by PlanPhilly).

“What’s different about this (policy) is that it exists. There are no policy documents that exist right now for the disposition of land certainly none that are consistent, none that are comprehensive,” said Bridget Greenwald, the new commissioner of the city’s Public Property department.

Check out the map and more here:  City’s “Front Door” cracks open | PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia’s Future.