I'm floored.
This is a great win.
and smart. Best lot left in Center City

It’s not a vacant lot per se- it will be an overbuild. There are still many lots in Center City that should be developed. The most prominent being the SE corner of Walnut/20th.

Well, the *most* prominent would probably be the Disney hole, but 20th & Walnut is a significant one too.

Still surprised the Disney hole has sat this long...Goldenberg is just sitting with it...

Honestly? Let them sit.

That corner deserves something > 600 ft. And if we have to wait 10 years to get it, it's fine by me.

Tax him into building something or selling.

how would one do that?

Dang they're wasting absolutely no time with this thing.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b0/9b...a2ce43f0b0.jpg

Never, ever doubt City Council's ability to come up with new and creative ways to use it's taxing authority.

How about this, tax the air rights on parking lots east of Broad St. between Race St. and Pine St. of more than 10K sq.ft. Or turn to a land based tax for that area as a trial basis. The City can't force him to build, but they can try to make continuing the status quo painful.

true enough that the city can be creative with its taxing abilities, but there are limits to what it can legally do. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that you can't target one person or entity for a novel tax like what you're proposing. maybe I'm naive but it would seem pretty transparent that they would be trying to use this power as a pre-emptive and punitive social engineering weapon.

What you're saying is true, but that is why the area I mentioned in my made up, dream on, 'law' was as large as it is. Spot zoning done through council passing a law is done this way quite often, I suppose for the reasons you mentioned. But, I don't claim to understand most of what comes out of council.

BTW, Harrisburg regularly passes laws and makes regulations that only apply to Class A cities. Philly is the only Class A city in the state. (I'm not such of the actual terms, but I've known two supervisors in different City departments who have told me the same thing, several years apart)

I don't think you even need to be so transparent. Reworking the tax structure for parking lots in general is well overdue in Philly regardless. Bump up the tax rate for larger lots and lots in center city. I mean this is by far the largest parking lot in center city right? I mean I guess maybe some of the lots on the edges of China town? Regardless, I think you don't have to be nearly as geographically focused and you could still have a law that largely just applies to this lot if that's what you wanted.

https://www.inquirer.com/business/ph...-20201122.html

The city’s hands are tied by Pennsylvania’s “uniformity clause,” which requires Philadelphia to tax all property owners equally, whether commercial or residential. If the clause could be waived, the city would have more options to change its tax structure, Philadelphia officials contend.

This is true, and FWIW there's nothing nefarious about it, it's just that there's a lot of times it makes sense to do something Philly-specific in a bill. Pittsburgh and Scranton are each in classes of their own. This article explains it a bit: https://whyy.org/articles/explainer-...ies-clarified/ (Apparently, Pittsburgh and Scranton used to be in the same class, but Scranton wanted to differentiate themselves? I didn't know that part lol. :shrug:)
This is also true, and is also why, among other things, we can't have a progressive income tax but instead have flat income taxes at both the state and city level.

Edit: Also, sorry to go off topic, and please no one turn this into a tax debate... lol...

^^^^^^^^^
Gee, you don't think talking about tax code as it applies to a parking lot at 8th & Market is directly related to an apartment proposal at 19th and Sansom? :rolleyes:

A small update, they've officially combined the parcels:

https://li.phila.gov/#details?entity...0S%2019TH%20ST

Different proposals in immediate area (red)
under construction (blue)
TIGHT!

Shown with 1810 Chestnut, 1826 Chestnut, 1620 Sansom, 115 19th. and 212 Chestnut.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...781db1e0_b.jpgRittenhouse Square N

New Permits Filed At 113-121 South 19th Street

https://phillyyimby.com/wp-content/u...12-777x578.jpg

Read/view more here:
https://phillyyimby.com/2021/02/parc...nter-city.html

Why are we still reposting Philly Yimby updates? Isn't this "update" the same consolidation that Mcgrath posted on November 30th?

Sheesh we've been having issues with Philly YIMBY.