The Philadelphia Land Bank was created in 2013 to help the city move its vacant land into productive use and acquire abandoned private land. Neglected properties can draw illegal dumping and littering, as seen along 29th Street earlier this year in Strawberry Mansion.Created in 2013, the Philadelphia Land Bank was meant to make it easier for the city to get its vacant land into productive use and acquire abandoned private land.
But Platt says that big changes are not expected in leadership. Executive director Angel Rodriguez, who’s helmed the Land Bank for seven years, will remain. And the administration hasn’t requested more funds for the Land Bank in the new budget. “With other land banks, things move faster,” said Ryan Spak, a midsized developer based in West Philadelphia. “I wouldn’t go down the road of doing a land bank project in Philadelphia because I’d be concerned that it might get stuck in a bottleneck somewhere.”
Compared to those days, the Land Bank is more effective. In the early years, legally mandated reporting requirements were followed, and a lot of land was moved from other agencies into the bank. In 2018 and 2019, the agency acquired over 600 properties. The Land Bank’s annual progress reports haven’t been updated since 2019 even though they are mandated by law. The same goes for the strategic plan, which is supposed to be refreshed every three years.“ put the burden on Council people with seven staff when you have multiple land holding agencies who are responsible for doing the vetting,” Quiñones-Sánchez said.
More basic tweaks could be made with the online mapping, data, and planning tools that the city offers. Such changes would be aided by a revamped and expanded Land Bank bureaucracy, fortified with staffers with expertise in real estate finance.