Jax Council finally passes property donation bill

A controversial bill, 2015-519, changing guidelines for city donation of vacant, buildable lots owned by the city after tax reversion for affordable housing inventory purposes, was passed by Jacksonville City Council on Tuesday.

The bill doubles the permissible value of properties that can be dispensed to CHDOs and other affordable housing non-profits from $25,000 to $50,000.

The bill, which has been worked over for years but has gotten pushback from certain Council members on the grounds of unfairness to Community Housing Development Organizations and on the grounds of opening the door to rental/transitional housing that could destabilize neighborhoods in Districts  7 through 10, finally got through committees in the last week, with a special committee OKing the bill and presumably clearing the path for passage.

Among the myriad amendments that presented to Council on Tuesday in the official version of the bill:

• exclusion of non-buildable lots from Affordable Housing Criteria
• limiting CHDOs to five properties at a time, and giving them a 30 day right of first review and refusal of new properties on the list
• properties must be owner-occupied as a primary residence
• meeting minimum construction and specification requirements as dictated by code
• a 30 day city review process of requested properties, from CHDOs and other interested parties
• requirement that recipients of these properties have no liens or other outstanding obligations to the city

Notable: the primary antagonist of this legislation, District 10’s Reggie Brown, was not present to vote on the bill.

The floor amendment process started early, with Garrett Dennis offering an amendment to add Habijax to the list of CHDOs; Councilman Bill Gulliford wanted to add Beaches Habitat to that list. Both were added by acclamation.

And the bill passed without objection.

“This bill, it took us a little while to get it out. But by digging in, we got a better product,” Council President Greg Anderson said, a world removed from the frustration he expressed during the committee process.

As the saying goes though, a win’s a win. And the city of Jacksonville is closer, perhaps, to clearing off some of the 436 tax-reverted properties it currently owns.

And closer to creating affordable housing options for those in Jacksonville who need them most.