PHILADELPHIA-Key City Council leaders hammered out a deal on Wednesday evening on legislation that would eventually create a land bank for the city.
If the bill passes the full City Council as currently written, the city of Philadelphia would be the largest city with such a land bank. Today amendments were expected to be introduced that would add and delete some language in the bill, which would establish a system for acquiring and disposing of more than 9,000 city-owned vacant properties in the city, according to The Inquirer.
The land bank would also be able to acquire thousands of vacant tax-delinquent properties and use them and the city-owned vacant lots for redevelopment.
Anne Fadullon, vice president of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, said of the land bank agreement, "We were all in the mood to compromise, and we all sort of got some and we gave some, and we got the land bank and that's what we wanted."
"It's a historic moment," the bill's primary sponsor Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez said. "The legislation is the first part of what will be a long process." See story in The Inquirer.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
