1. Daniel Traub, "Lots" (Print Center 2010-11)

2. Reform as balancing act:
Crafting Phila’s new land bank
and demo regulations
Jennifer Kates, Esq.
Office of Councilwoman María Quiñones Sánchez
7th District, Philadelphia

3. Reforming
our approach
to code
enforcment

4. Interconnected problems
-- Many thousands of properties abandoned,
dragged down with aged debt and "tangled"
title
-- A tax and lien foreclosure system not
structured or incentivized to support
redevelopment goals
-- Code enforcement historically reactive, not
strategic
-- Related functions in different “silos”

5. Code enforcement: problem
-- Systems designed to react to complaints
-- Poor data, anachronistic technology
-- Unwillingness to admit unaddressed need
-- Legacy of “NTI”, mid-2000s demo program

6. Demolition crisis
D
June, 2013 building collapse at 22nd and Market

7. Demolition reform
-- Executive order and new
departmental regulations
-- Special investigatory
committee convened by City
Council, 80+ page report
issued, legislation adopted
-- Mayoral Blue Ribbon
Commission in process

8. Towards more systemic reform?
-- New computer system being commissioned,
will integrate with Revenue’s
-- Pending recommendations for structural
changes, new funding
-- But strategic enforcement programs in flux
-- Need a comprehensive strategy, and large-
scale funding

9. "The Land Bank will help
eliminate blight,
stabilize our neighborhoods,
and put vacant property
back on the tax rolls."
- Councilwoman María Quiñones Sánchez
Reforming our approach
to vacant land

10. Vacant land: problem
-- Poor data
-- No system for acquisitions
-- Code enforcement, lien collection/foreclosure
segregated from redevelopment agencies
-- Narrow focus on housing as highest & best use

11. Land Bank reform
-- Land Bank legislation adopted in December
2013
-- Will be funded for FY15, operational by 2015
-- One agency, one inventory, one set of rules

12. Breaking the acquisition
deadlock
-- Tax/lien foreclosure decisions will be based
on redevelopment goals in addition to
revenue generation
-- Power to clear and abate City liens allows
"donor-taker" transfers that restore
properties to productive use
-- Land Bank sales will fund more acquisition
and maintenance

13. Transparency is key
-- Real time online inventory and tracking
tools; Automated notice to interested parties
-- Published policies, developed through a
biannual formal process with public
comment
-- Detailed reporting of transfers and terms

14. Towards a more systemic
reform?
-- Central role for market analysis and planning
-- Acquisition tool works for low-value areas “left
behind” by traditional enforcement
-- Pricing based on market-appropriate valuation
methods, flexibility to make development feasible
and for range of community-beneficial uses

16. Let this image become an
artifact of a past era
jennifer.kates
@phila.gov
215-686-3448