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St. Paul wants to sell, rehab or build upon 240 parcels of land within 2 years

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The city of St. Paul is looking to fill vacant lots citywide, complete some long-scheduled housing rehab projects and do a full-court press in six five neighborhoods — Payne-Phalen, Frogtown, Dayton’s Bluff, West Seventh Street and Railroad Island — with too many aching and empty spaces.

A general concept plan detailing an ambitious, four-pronged assault on empty lots and vacant properties went before the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority in late July.

No, it’s not simple and — at $12.89 million — it won’t be cheap. What’s more, the city wants it all to happen within the next two years. You can read all 42 pages of the “Neighborhood Development Strategy” for yourself, here.

“More than anything else, our strategy is really about trying to maximize neighborhood impact by focusing our public dollars,” said Roxanne Young, the city’s project manager.

To start off, city staff took a look at all of the property that’s owned by the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA). “We decided to focus our analysis on a subset of that — 240 parcels … concentrated in the ‘Invest St. Paul‘ and ‘Neighborhood Stabilization Program‘ ” neighborhoods, Young said.

Here’s how those 240 parcels might be converted from flab to fab in two shakes of a lamb’s tail (and $12.89 million later)…

Strategy 1: Clusters — 70 parcels

The first of the four strategies focuses on vacant lots inside 10-to-15 block “clusters” of Payne Phalen, Dayton’s Bluff, Frogtown, West Seventh Street and Railroad Island (which is actually a smaller subset of Payne-Phalen).

The cluster strategy envisions turning those lots into houses, be that rental or home ownership.

“We want to prioritize the development of the property that’s owned within those areas within the next two years,” Young said. “That’s our goal.”

“In the case of the cluster area strategy, we’re focusing on developing everything with residential property. In some cases, we have buildings on the site. When there’s a building on the site, we’re intending to rehab the building.”

To entice developers, the city is lining up financing through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (a $1.16 million grant application is on its way), on top of city funds. That grant in particular would benefit at least 29 properties, including 17 rehabs and 12 new constructions.

Requests for Proposals for three of the clusters would likely go before the HRA before the end of September. Those areas are Frogtown, Dayton’s Bluff and Payne-Phalen. In the case of Frogtown, the city worked closely with the Frogtown-Rondo Home Loan Fund to make sure the cluster area overlaps with the community served by the fund. The RFPs should boost about 60 properties in total.

“This is a pretty technical approach,” said Young, “and it’s based on a public process that already occurred under both Invest St. Paul and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. … What we’re really trying to do with this strategy is finish the work that we already started.”

Confused? Outreach is planned over the course of the next month to several district councils in the “cluster” areas.

Strategy 2: Existing properties with ‘obligations’ — 60 parcels

The city has plenty of obligations to fill vacant lots previously acquired through the federally-funded Neighborhood Stabilization Program, or rehab vacant homes acquired through the program. The goal is to prioritize those efforts — and others where money is already on the line — within the next two years.

“We either have a funding source that’s requiring us to meet our obligations within a given timeline, or there’s a building up on the property,” Young said.

Strategy No. 3: Additional vacant lots for sale — 56 parcels

The city will also look at vacant lots that aren’t located in one of the six cluster areas, and don’t have funding obligations that are connected to them. The hope is that the market will provide. “Those properties, effectively what we’re saying is we’re going to explore selling them for their appraised value,” Young said. “We’re doing a pilot sale of five properties this fall.”

Strategy No. 4: Splinter parcels — 54 parcels

The city also has plans for “splinter parcels” — those pesky lots that are too small to develop without a variance, or have topography and soil contamination issues, or other issues that would be a barrier to development.

“For those properties, we’re exploring the development of a splinter parcel sale program,” Young said. City staff hope to bring a series of potential policies and procedures for the program to the HRA board, with the goal of implementing them sometime between October and January.

“Effectively, our strategy is looking at the potential for the neighboring property owner to acquire the property,” Young said. Another approach might be to have a district council or nonprofit find some other use for the site, such as a playground or meeting space.

“It’s very early in conceptual stages,” she said.

So what do you think dear Scoop reader? Has the city hit paydirt with a four-pronged action plan? Will these strategies fill empty space and rehab eyesore properties, or devote public funds to projects that developers might otherwise do privately if building regulations were loosened?

Feel free to sound off, below, 1, 2…


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