New Haven Independent

Sliver Lots Up For Grabs

by Thomas MacMillan | December 23, 2008 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

New Haven is contemplating a “giveaway” of troublesome vacant lots that it can’t sell cheap.

The board of the Livable City Initiative (LCI), City Hall’s neighborhood anti-blight agency, approved the sale of two Dewitt Street “sliver lots” to Habitat for Humanity on Monday night.

That leaves only 600 more to dispense with.

It hasn’t been easy.

Frank D’Amore (pictured at top of story), LCI deputy director, defines a “sliver lot” as properties in the city’s possession — acquired mainly through tax foreclosure — that are too small to build on or are otherwise unsuitable for development.

Sliver lots are a financial liability since they require city maintenance and don’t produce tax revenue. If abandoned, they also drag down neighborhoods.

After a decade of dramatically reducing the number of abandoned properties, partly by selling sliver lots to adjoining homeowners, LCI is now groping with a growing inventory thanks in part to the recession and foreclosure crisis.

LCI is constantly trying to sell the sliver lots to adjacent property owners as it did in the 1990s. But D’Amore said lately it has been increasingly difficult to find buyers, even with prices as low as 25 cents per square foot.

What to do? That’s the question coming before a Jan. 21 meeting of LCI’s Property Acquisition and Dispensation Committee (PAD). The public’s invited. (It takes place on City Hall’s fifth floor at 4 p.m.) Among possible solutions: lowering prices, or eliminating them altogether.

“There’s been talk of a sliver lot giveaway,” said LCI staffer Evan Trachten (at right in photo).

Between 60 and 70 sliver lots are sold every year, when the economy is good, Trachten said. But in the current economy, people can’t come up with even $200 to $500 to buy an 800 or 2,000 square foot lot.

“People can’t buy them,” Trachten said. “To me it’s shocking… even investors.”

“We’re trying to create as many incentives as we can,” D’Amore said. He explained that the city offered a phased-in property tax program over several years to buyers of sliver lots. But LCI still can’t get rid of them.

D’Amore said that LCI has been “mulling things over” trying to come up with a solution to this problem.

“There are many ideas on the table,” Trachten said, from lowering the prices, to creating a sliding scale, to simply giving the properties away to adjacent property owners, many of whom have been using them for years, without paying taxes on them.

“If we can come up with a plan that gives them away, it could be very beneficial to the city,” Trachten said.

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Comments

Posted by: Streever | December 23, 2008 9:17 AM

If they are not being used, what about a "sponsor a lot" program?

You get a lot for free: in exchange you have to keep it green & beautiful if you aren't able to build anything on it. (i.e. an extension of your adjacent property)

Posted by: Ned Ludd | December 23, 2008 9:31 AM

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.

There's a good reason no one wants these sliver lots. They increase your taxable assessment. Why pay taxes on a piece of land you can use and enjoy for free?

Posted by: jawbone | December 23, 2008 9:44 AM

Is there a map or online data base that shows where these parcels of land are located? I might be interested if there is one in my neighborhood.

Posted by: William Kurtz | December 23, 2008 10:27 AM

I like David Streever's idea. Do I hear National Park(ing) Day Redux?

Posted by: James | December 23, 2008 10:35 AM

Why not give them away to adjacent property owners and exempt them from property tax? They're not being taxed now, so there's no loss. They're not occupied, so they don't generate any liabilities to be offset by taxes. As it is they are a liability to the city that must maintain them. Simply put a covenant in the deed that the recipient of the lot must maintain it to certain standards. Violation of the covenant results in revocation of the tax exempt status.

Posted by: robn | December 23, 2008 12:41 PM

How about if the city gives them away and makes them tax free with the understanding that if any structure is later built upon or expanded onto the property, the market price should be paid and the land again becomes taxable. This incentivises ownership and care of the land, but doesn't burden the owner until some revenue bearing use can be made of land.

Posted by: Ben | December 23, 2008 2:00 PM

I agree Jawbone.
Would like to see the map.

Posted by: michael g | December 23, 2008 5:10 PM

send me a map of vacant lots, taxes due,and the price of each lot.

Posted by: Reader | December 23, 2008 7:34 PM

This is the assessor's database:
http://data.visionappraisal.com/newhavenct/DEFAULT.asp

Search for "city of New Haven" as owner.

Posted by: nimt | December 24, 2008 12:42 AM

Why not make them into community gardens? That would benefit everyone.

Posted by: angelo reyes | December 24, 2008 12:23 PM

drive by westville,brandford,east haven,ect,ect the properties that have elbow room ,driveways,plants
hold their value, and are more stable than the conjested row houses with no breathing space. no to community gardens ,no to out of town owners. adjacent owners out of fear sometimes dont see the big picture. the city should push,hold their hands,find goverment money to help bring back these neiborhoods.keep pushing the lots are free,no tax bill for 10 years,and when you do it will be peanuts compared to the value and equity that you will have accumilated.

Sliver Lots Up For Grabs

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