12th Avenue Land Parcel Transferred To Office of Housing
The Department of Neighborhoods has transferred to the City Office of Housing the responsibility for finding a purchaser for the City-owned property at the northeast corner of 12th Avenue and Jefferson.
This parcel is one of two properties still under City control among those acquired in 1992 as part of Mayor Norm Rice’s 12th Avenue Plan. Proceeds from the sale of those properties have been dedicated to capital improvements in the neighborhood. To date, the City has received an unknown amount from the sale and lease of the property. (The Department of Neighborhoods (DON), the office formerly with the responsibility to manage the 12th Avenue Plan, is not able to report how much money it has received over the Plan’s 15+ year period. Public sale records suggest that the sales price for all of the 12th Avenue property DON has sold was nearly $1.6 million. DON is unable to say how much has been received from property leases and unable to say how much has been spent on capital improvements; however, DON states that, at this time, approximately $358,000 is left in the 12th Avenue Capital Improvement fund. Additional street improvements may be performed on 12th Avenue and 14th Avenue with money from that fund. The amount remaining after that is slated to go toward planning and development of a 12th Avenue community gathering place. (See related 12th Ave park article.)
The 12th and Jefferson property, 9,791 square feet, has an assessed value of just over $1 million. At a meeting in July, the Office of Housing floated the idea of transferring that property to a developer for no money if the developer would agree to provide below market rate housing. There would, thus, be no money from the sale of that property for the 12th Avenue Development Fund. That idea was rejected by those attending the meeting, and the Office of Housing was requested to consider other strategies for providing affordable housing in the neighborhood.
—Bill Zosel