At our last meeting we talked about the vacant lot at 21st and & Pole Ave being a great opportunity to add green space to the neighborhood. The owner of the lot owes back taxes and we discussed the possibility of asking the owner to donate the lots to the city if his taxes were forgiven. The lot is huge about 4 lots. We thought it would be a great place to have a park with basketball courts and a picnic area for our neighbors to enjoy. As many of you know the lot is overgrown and needs a lot of TLC. It's been a garbage dump for years and the grass is at least chest high. There are trees that need to be thinned out and there is plenty of poison ivy. The Carter family and I cleaned it and cut the grass last year for our pride week project. It has not been touched since.
I spoke to our Councilman today and presented the idea. He said he would talk to Sandy Prudoff and thought it was very possible to do this.
If this happens we have a commitment as a community to clean up the lots and do some fundraising to get the picnic and playground equipment. This is an election year so hopefully we can see this become a reality. I will be sending the owners name to our councilman to see what he can do.
If this becomes a reality, what a wonderful thing we can all be proud of. Our own little slice of heaven. I will keep you updated as to what I hear. Thanks to all the neighbors for having such vision.
UPDATE!
I spoke with community development and they are going to help us with this project. They have spoken to the owner of the lots. Now the owner is trying to see how much money they can make off the deal even though they have not maintained the property for over five years and we have had to look at the chest high grass and garbage. My recollection is he paid $600.00 for all 4 lots back in 1996.
What I learned is the city cannot forgive the taxes. They would have to pay the taxes and closing costs to transfer the land. Community Development said down the road we would have to create a non profit association and then the city could exempt us from taxes but this is all way down the road. We would have to maintain the land and get donations and do fundraisers to raise the money to clean it up and get the playground equipment. I was told it will not get a park designation. As more information comes in I will update.
UPDATE!
I spoke with community development and they are going to help us with this project. They have spoken to the owner of the lots. Now the owner is trying to see how much money they can make off the deal even though they have not maintained the property for over five years and we have had to look at the chest high grass and garbage. My recollection is he paid $600.00 for all 4 lots back in 1996.
What I learned is the city cannot forgive the taxes. They would have to pay the taxes and closing costs to transfer the land. Community Development said down the road we would have to create a non profit association and then the city could exempt us from taxes but this is all way down the road. We would have to maintain the land and get donations and do fundraisers to raise the money to clean it up and get the playground equipment. I was told it will not get a park designation. As more information comes in I will update.
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