In February Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll announced some new ideas for fixing up Syracuse's housing at his State of the City. We've been creative in finding new ways to construct new home and rehabilitate older ones, often with public subsidy, Driscoll said at the speech, those public dollars are limited so we need to find ways to do more.
The two main new ideas the mayor suggested were to offer tax delinquent homes to private developers for $1 each, a policy the city already has with non-profits, and also to exempt any improvements or renovations made on vacant houses, or any new construction on vacant lots from both school and city taxes.
It's going to allow people to build anew, and in the city there's never enough of that, said David Manzano, president of the greater Syracuse Association of Realtors. Manzano points to the example of the Jefferson Clinton Commons project where condominiums built near Armory Square were given tax breaks, and were a success. This shows that tax breaks are effective and the Mayors tax break plan should work, Manzano said. Manzano also believes selling tax delinquent homes to developers will work.
As an example Manzano said a lot he was trying to sell on Valley Drive bordered a rundown tax delinquent home. In this case the city bulldozed it, rather than selling it to a developer, but suddenly Manzano received multiple offers on the home, and the surrounding lots sold up. This is just one example among many, he said.
The mayors plan to sell tax delinquent lots as an alternative to demolishing houses, which costs the city about $25,000 a home he said. Either way they're either fixed up or they're demolished Manzano said.
Not everyone is as happy about the mayor’s plan however.
Philip Prahn, senior staff organizer for the non-profit Syracuse United Neighbors does not think the plan to sell tax delinquent houses is enough to make much difference. We're talking maybe 60 houses, Prahn estimated. This program doesn't meet the scale that's needed.
The city has over 1,000 vacant homes, of which about 300 are knocked down each year, Prahn said. Unfortunately more become vacant so fast that the number tends to stay fairly constant, according to Prahn.
They need to start thinking systematically, not just with little programs around the edges. The mayor's office did not respond to calls in time for this article.
As far as the tax incentive program Prahn believes it is a good idea, but if developers could get a break from county taxes, it would make a much bigger difference. If you put that in the mix, then you might really be talking about some incentive.
For now some of the Mayor's plans are before the council, and the tax break plan is going to Albany, where it needs state approval said City Clerk Michael Copanas. The mayor proposed using money from a trolley lot the city sold, to fund a program in Eastwood to help home buyers with down payments on houses, and a program in the Southwest neighborhood to help with rehabilitating housing. This measure is going through the Common Council at the moment, Copanas said.
The mayor specifically thanked Councilor Kathleen Joy in his speech for working with the Community Preservation Corporation to get support for selling tax delinquent homes to developers.
Manzano suggests another measure, which he thinks the city should attempt: bringing the Parade of Homes event to Syracuse. Parade of homes is an annual program of Home Builders and Remodelers of Central New York, where the top developers in the area come to a neighborhood, and work on eight to 12 homes in a subdivision, to showcase the newest innovations. Despite talks of holding the event at the Syracuse Inner Harbor one year, it has never been held within the city Manzano said. It's a pretty big project; it's got to be in a pretty aggressive area.
According to Manzano, this is a good time to re energize housing in the city, because while Syracuse did not benefit much from the housing market boom experienced through much of the nation, it has not felt the effects of the crash either. We're pretty stable here, he said.
Manzano recalled telling a reporter for a while we were feeling like the crane was an endangered species here, and I'm not talking about the bird. Now he points to projects at hospitals and Destiny USA as evidence that investors are once again interested in the Syracuse housing market.
Manzano also said he felt this would be a good time to educate young residents, and then bring them back to Syracuse, to stimulate the local economy and housing market. If we're bringing young people to get educated and come back, it's nothing but good, he said. Manzano said he personally supports the Mayor Driscoll. You've got to have a progressive mayor, who thinks positive.
Writen By Max Nerenberg, Syracuse University - 4/17/08
