Yes, it’s correct that you must already own residential property on the same block or across the…

This post is a reply to a reader comment on Speculative development: Here's what you can build on your new $1 “Large Lot”:

Am I correct that you must already own property on the same block in order to be eligible to purchase these lots? I guess I understand the desire to avoid predatory gentrification, but given that most of these lots are in communities currently starved for investment, it seems foolish to specifically exclude the possibility of outside investment coming in.

Yes, it’s correct that you must already own residential property on the same block or across the street from the target property.

I get what you’re saying about predatory gentrification (development from outside developers). Part of the impetus for the Large Lots program was to legalize and incentivize certain patterns that were already occurring, which are mentioned in my post: People have already been taking care of the properties they live near. In other words, giving neighbors more control over the lots’ destinies.

The city also needs a faster way to “flip” these properties from being city-owned and a drag on city resources (maintenance, police responses).

Large Lots emerged from the city’s Green Healthy Neighborhoods plan to stabilize a large area that has 40 percent fewer residents than its peak. From that website:

In 2010, the area’s population of 148,000 people was less than 40 percent of its all-time high in 1940. Simultaneous to the population loss, many of the region’s dense residential buildings and vibrant commercial structures were vacated and replaced with 11,000 vacant lots, equivalent to more than 800 acres of vacant land.

Read pages 16 and 17 in the Housing section of the plan. Some of the more specific goals mentioned are possibly increasing property values by increasing the size of the land. (I don’t buy this reasoning because doubling the size of a lot in an area with very low property values doesn’t make that lot more valuable. The potential to make it more valuable is greater, but that still requires a costly investment of actually building something there).

From the Green Healthy Neighborhoods plan document. That’s a ton of vacant land.

Large Lots doesn’t accommodate outside investment but the city has two other programs that do (see bottom of this page):

1. Negotiated Sales Program: See a property you like, notify the city, they’ll put it out to bid. You might be the only bidder (although there may, of course, be a minimum bid).
2. Adjacent Neighbors Land Acquisition Program (ANLAP): This is the predecessor program to Large Lots. You live “immediately adjacent” to a city-owned property and want to buy it? Apply to the city, they’ll get it appraised, and you’ll pay approximately 10% of that. This program is even more restrictive than Large Lots and should actually be canceled; it requires that you live even closer than Large Lots requires to the target property, is a much slower process, prohibits re-selling it for 10 years instead of 5, and applies only to three very specific zoning classes. Oh, and any property appraised at greater than $50,000 isn’t eligible.