Quote:
Originally Posted by allovertown
It's not about "FORCING" someone to sell if they don't want to, it's about fixing a broken tax code that creates so many incentives to operate surface parking lots in this city. The way the city taxes unimproved land is clearly thoroughly inadequate. Every time someone does sell one of these lots they always sell for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-50 times the value they were being taxed at. There is nothing malicious with trying to get the valuation used to tax a property more in line with its actual value.
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Well, there lies the problem. The value doesn't increase until the purpose of that lot changes. So, why should the value of the lot be taxed as it full potential value (i.e., putting a trophy building or some high value building/business in its place), when the revenues for parked cars will not be the same as revenue for leases to occupy office space. And believe me, businesses in the city have been "forced" to leave and do business outside of city limits because of a plethora of business taxes. And, one of the main reasons Philly cannot attract more businesses is because of its taxes. That has been echoed here too many times to count.
In any case, I don't have faith in how property, land, parking lots or whatever is assessed by the city so that it is fair and evenhanded for everyone. Maybe the city can sell the city-owned parking surface lots first to private developers before trying to tackle an underassessment of privately owned parking lots.
Again, I don't like surface lots and would rather see the compromise of a new project that includes a garage in its place.