Lamphier: Vacant lots show gap in rules to encourage infill housing
EDMONTON — We live in a mature inner-city neighbourhood, a short drive from downtown.
Our leafy, tree-lined street ends at Ada Blvd., overlooking the river valley and Highlands golf course.
On summer nights, we sometimes drift off to sleep to the sound of the coyotes engaging in their usual midnight revelry.
It’s a great place to live, full of young families, empty nesters and retired seniors.
Yet despite the neighbourhood’s appeal, and the city’s steady population growth, two nearby houses have sat completely empty for at least the past 10 years. No one seems to know why.
One house looks ready to keel over. The grass is rarely cut, the rickety front porch appears set to fall off, and the back fence fell over long ago.
The second empty house has no porch steps. A grubby blanket is draped over the front windows, and scaffolding has been propped up against the south wall for years.
Ugly? You betcha. But what’s really perplexing is that it’s impossible to see who actually gains from this.
The absentee owners generate no rental income while their properties rot, and the city loses out on the potential tax revenues that could be generated from new infill development.
The residents on our street, meanwhile, get to stare at these eyesores every day, while grumbling about the negative impact on their own property values.
Our street isn’t unique, of course. There are derelict houses and empty lots sprinkled all over Edmonton, especially in inner-city neighbourhoods like ours.
Yet, despite all the righteous talk from politicians about the need to spur more density in North America’s least-dense metropolis, city hall puts no pressure on absentee owners to either sell or develop their properties.
Instead, these dormant urban dead zones are left unattended for years — or even decades — at a time. That has to change.
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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/...rules+encourage+infill/7096140/story.htm
Agree 100% with this article. The city has done a very poor job of encouraging development in central areas, enforcing bylaws and forcing owners of derelict properties to do something about their lands. Love the idea of giving a tax break to nearby residents for supporting density. I think we might follow up with this and see where it goes.
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