Emanuel promotes $1 lot program as property tax hike looms

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel was out promoting his administration's Large Lots program Friday, which gives homeowners the chance to buy vacant land for just $1.

But it's a tougher sell as city officials consider the biggest property tax increases in city history.

Robbin Carroll, whose not-for-profit group owns a nearby house, gets excited when she talks about the community garden at 64th and Honore.

"We did a lot of basil over there, some more berries," Carroll said.

It's on one of two once-vacant lots the city sold her group for $1 apiece.

"These lots are to create connection and belonging and that's what we use them for," she said.

Longtime resident Ora Bradley remembered two summers ago hating the lot's tall weeds.

"Who's to say what was hiding in it? Maybe a rodent, perhaps a human. We didn't know," Bradley said.

Since last year, Chicago has sold 430 of the over 15,000 vacant lots in its inventory and will expand $1 sales to low-income neighborhoods citywide. Buyers are required only to be a current property owner living on the same block.

"You buy it for a dollar, you have to prove that you are going to improve the quality of that lot," Emanuel said.

But buyers, who promise not to sell for five years, also must pay the property tax. The mayor, who did not deny he's trying to increase the city's tax levy, said the increase should spare low income neighborhoods already struggling with foreclosures and tens of thousands of abandoned homes.

"Our seniors and those on fixed incomes are not going to be hurt and those that can afford it will actually be the ones we call on to step up and meet our obligations," Emanuel said.

When asked if "those that can afford it" would have to pay even more to make up for lower income homeowners who might be exempted from paying the increase, the mayor said:

"We're paying a price from decades of indecision and kicking the can down the road. It got more expensive."

Emanuel will release his budget proposal on Sept. 22. It's expected that he will propose a property tax increase in the neighborhood of $500 million.