Abandonments

Abandonments-- get excited. I had no idea what they were until I started this internship. The best way to know what it is is through an example. Say there is an ally that is behind your and your neighbor's houses. The ally is not used for much. A bunch of trash collects there, and you think that maybe some illicit activies are going on. So, you get together with your neighbors and ask the city to abandon that piece of property. This will allow you to extend your property line. However, there is a catch, allies were created in the first place to give cities easy access to sewer and water lines. So, if you add this piece of property to your overall land, then you must ensure the city that they will be able to come in, and dig up your yard if needs be in case something happens. So, the city decides to "abandon" this piece of land for a price, usually around $0.23 per square foot, which is NOTHING.

Well, as with all things, people are trying to find loopholes so that the government will abandon land so property owners can increase their holdings. Especially developers. A developer will claim that it needs the City to abandon an ally, or a sidewalk, or whatever else so they can develop. Too often, once the city decides to do this, the developer flips the property, selling what the City sold at $0.23 per square foot for $151 per square foot-- thus, the City looses all of that money it would have gained had it sold it at a market price. I agree that the City should let go of what it does not need to encourage development-- but then again, it should not be tricked out of holdings either.