City of York gambling with taxpayer dollars
“The Redevelopment Authority of York is addicted to risky business. Utilizing a mix of eminent domain and blighted property legislation, the RDA has become the city’s foremost land speculator, having amassed a land bank totaling over 300 city properties. Those hundreds of properties remain off the tax rolls, as the city administration hypocritically laments the fact that nonprofits hold about a third of real estate in York city.
Playing fast and loose with the people’s money, the RDA recently purchased the Citizens Bank building for $515,000. With little to no oversight, the Authority refuses to release a public disposition strategy, and it’s unknown if it even has one. Like an addict, its moves are marked by arbitrary whims and impulse. You never know what’s next.
Will the RDA keep the Citizens Bank building off private real estate listings as it’s done with the Woolworth building for so many years? Or will it plunder state tax money and matching city funds to bring it to code and sell it for a dollar to a pet developer as it has habitually in the past? Will it become a massive taxpayer boondoggle such as the ice rink, currently bleeding $400,000 in tax funds per year or be more like the expensive empty-lot-with-a-name known as the Northwest Triangle?”
YDR.com 31 July 2014.