UPDATED: A Tale of Two Towers: Atlanta & Charlottesville both dealing with Dewberry eyesores

Here’s an updated version of my story about the ACJ article on the Dewberry with comments from City Councilor Michael Payne. Also, Payne thinks we should learn from Atlanta and pursue a blight tax, even if that means requesting authority from the General Assembly. He also thinks the newly passed land value tax could be used. You can read the full updated article here.

Payne’s comments:

“I think we should learn from Atlanta and pursue a blight tax. And if authority doesn’t currently exist to implement that within Virginia, we should request authority from the General Assembly,” he says. Likewise, Paynes says the city shouldn’t abandon the previous effort to declare the property blighted.

“There is a legitimate basis for considering the unmaintained property a threat to health and human safety,” says Payne, “ given the large rat population and that seemingly no monitoring is taking place to know who might enter the structure, or what damage could have been done to the skeleton of the building.”

Payne also thinks the city should take advantage of new legislation passed into law earlier this year that allows Virginia localities to tax land at a higher rate than buildings. The so-called land value tax law, which goes into effect July 1, is designed to lower the property tax burden on residential home owners, reward the construction of multifamily housing, and raise taxes on vacant and/or underutilized land.

“Which could at least create a small incentive for land owners to develop properties rather than leave them undeveloped for years,” says Payne.

Also, according to Payne, the summary of some of his thoughts in the ACJ article were “slightly off.” Particularly this one:

“Payne doesn’t believe a hotel is the best use for the site. There isn’t a huge tourism market in Charlottesville outside of the university or President Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, a few miles southeast of downtown. In the years following Dewberry’s acquisition, other hotels were built in the city.”

“I didn’t mean Charlottesville doesn’t have a tourism industry,” he says. “ I think UVA is a primary driver of that industry, along with Monticello, wineries, weddings, hiking...ikewise, I didn’t mean a hotel couldn’t be economically viable. I just think apartments at that location would provide greater community benefit versus a hotel.”