Policy Order O-21

WHEREAS: In response to widespread bank foreclosures, some cities have instituted vacancy taxes and penalties to help preserve the vibrancy of neighborhoods; and

WHEREAS: Cities have also experimented with vacancy taxes to prevent landlords from shuttering stores, that create jobs and economic vitality to a community while open; and

WHEREAS: Cambridge seems to have some large absentee landlords which are leaving land and storefronts empty in an apparent attempt to land-bank them at the expense of the residents who presently live in those neighborhoods; now therefore be it

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the Community Development Department to report back to the City Council on what strategies other cities have used to dissuade land-banking and what may be applicable in Cambridge.