What's happening with the Land Bank?
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"This is an opportunity to look at what's happening in specific neighborhoods, block by block, parcel by parcel."
The land bank is supposed to make it easier to get rid of vacant land — but what happens next?
Nearly half a year after the signing of the (nearly derailed) legislation to create a land bank in Philadelphia, board members are about to select a team to create a "strategic five-year plan" for reusing the city's massive collection of publicly owned vacant land.
The basic idea is to streamline the process of unloading these properties by folding them into a single organization, called the Philadelphia Housing and Development Corporation (PHDC), which would also have the ability to acquire and resell privately-owned, tax delinquent properties. The strategic plan would create guidelines dictating how that land should be dispersed.
PHDC began advertising a Request for Proposals in April to attract bids from companies that would be charged with developing those guidelines. That's more complicated than it might sound, as different interests have argued in support of a wide range of uses, from creating new parks to private development, affordable housing, community gardens or side yards.
The strategic plan would, ideally, separate out which of those pieces of land are most appropriate for each possible use, by incorporating community input and urban planning principles.
"This is an opportunity to look at what's happening in specific neighborhoods, block by block, parcel by parcel," said Beth McConnell of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, a major advocate for the creation of the land bank. "We can look at where we really need affordable housing, where we need green space, where we need market rate housing."
According to McConnell, the strategic plan would also take into account areas with high clusters of private, tax delinquent properties and existing neighborhood surveys completed by the Planning Commission.
Seven planning teams have submitted bids. Although the bidding process is still confidential, sources have reported that some of the planning teams include firms like Capital Access, Econsult Solutions, Interface Studio, Loveland Technologies, Sasaki Associates and the Fels Institute of Government.
Capital Access, Econsult, Fels, Interface, and Sasaki all have reputations locally. The newcomer, Loveland Technologies, recently gained fame amongst planning circles for completing a survey of nearly every property in the city of Detroit.
McConnell said the land bank board was "very close" to selecting a consultant. A Q&A with more details about the goals of the strategic planning process is available here.
