Answering Brother Duron’s Questions

1. How can fair, just & transparent procedures for the sale of the city land be
developed & implemented?
2. How can a developmental strategy be implemented that allows for commonly held
land to be entrusted to city residents for beautification, recreation, gardening,
environmental stewardship, teaching, and generating income?
3. How much land should be sold to any one developer or consortium of developers?
4. What reciprocity should the people of Richmond expect for the sale of land to
developers?
5. How do we close the historical gap between wealth landowners and the landless?

1. The Maggie Walker land trust is not enough. There needs to be a quota (preferably
quarterly) on how many vacant land parcels & properties must be reserved for low-
income housing & urban farming food justice initiatives (as seen in Philadelphia). There
must be a limit on how many parcels quarterly & annually that can be sold to
developers. All public land sold must have community agreements & incentives like land
rebate programs with year one collection especially in areas with cost-burdened
households. The new tax brought into the city coffers should be allocated to housing
stability funds (as seen in Pittsburgh, GA) & homestead tax credit programs (as seen in
Maryland and California). We also need to develop a city wide AMI percentage in lieu of
a region wide affordability standard. Once implemented these parcels sold should be at
least 30% AMI of the new city wide AMI many housing advocates are calling to
implement. If HUD funds are used, we should stray from the 120% AMI level which is
higher than market rate for the city. The limit on parcels sold will be adjusted by
percentage of cost-burdened households in the neighborhood. I think we also need to
diversify the use of the Land Trust to include urban agriculture & use the city plots to
contract food supply for incentivized grocers, schools, and other city owned contracts.
Scaling up the office of minority business development to help fund grocer trucks as a
start up and distribution channel for urban gardeners would work well also. I know Dr.
Malcolm Andress has thought deeply about food truck models as a way to invigorate
and disrupt the anchor contract model for food vendors in development projects as
well.
2. Much like during the period of reconstruction we need land, distribution channels, and
contracts for black & urban farm agriculture models operating in the city. I think Urban
Farming, Food deserts, Economic generation, & climate change do not have to be
dueling issues. One of the largest industries that negatively affect climate change is the
animal agriculture industry. The more that we can reduce the reliance on consuming
animals and introduce and sustain a more plant-based or plant reliant diet that is good
for communities with food desserts & the climate. Historically black reparations were
about land, scaling up capacity, & contracts per the civil rights act of 1866. Those areas
of investment still need expansion today. Philadelphia which suffers from similar
 gentrification efforts as Richmond in the expansion of universities such as Temple has
begun reserving vacant land for urban farming initiatives & I believe the Maggie Walker
Community Land trust should follow suit. If we can coordinate the Urban Farming
programs in the city & provide land * capacity for grocers in the city (i.e. Market at 25th
*which I know you attempted to do and that request wasn’t honored). I think with
public schools if they implemented a meatless Monday initiative while the city
developed a food truck/grocer truck initiative in a scaled-up Office of Minority Business
Development, we could disrupt the traditional grocer model (or return to an older
model of farm to home delivery). Of course, you have led the way in the garden
resiliency initiative, I am interested in how we build out distribution channels for such
an initiative in schools and neighborhoods as well. Once we start using land rebates,
diversify how we use vacant land and lots and have more just procurement processes
we can have CBA’s include contracts with the urban farming initiatives in the city. In
economic generation as well, we know there is talk of legalizing marijuana and in the
recent delegation of medical licenses for medicinal marijuana racial equity was not used
in who got the growth versus distribution contracts. I think if we legalize and give
grower licenses to communities over policed and over incarcerated while providing
vacant lots to start growth could be a form of repair for exclusion out of industries due
to racism, redlining, and Jim crow.
3. I think it is important to note citywide that we need policy reform on campaign finance
within the city specifically dealing with developers and how land is sold to political
donors.
a. I think as a city we need a land use sustainability matrix that determines
i. How many parcels and properties can be sold in areas with high cost-
burdened households. If sold it funds homestead tax credits & housing
stability funds to prevent displacement due to gentrification.
We need a quarterly limit on how many parcels should be sold. Within that limit should
be an individual limit if that donor has given more than 1500 in donations to a city
council member’s campaign. It may not be legal to enact such a restriction but it should
be disclosed prior to sale at least. I believe if a councilmember has received more than
1500 from a donor they should have to disclose that relationship with the developer and
recuse themselves from votes concerning that developer.
b. I believe a quarterly quota of vacant land, buildings & houses used for
community use (such as the Housing Plus Pilot program I want to implement to
secure housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness) should be
required to be met before the next quarterly acquisition of properties at an a city
held auction can occur. This enforces that the quotas and the limits are being
met. This may also create an incentive for community-owned land us in the
private sector as they would need to see a quota met of public owned-land for
community use prior to another round of tax sale auctions.
4. Public dollars should be used for the public good. The same should be said for use of
public owned land. The auction process is a curious and perhaps ineffective way for
getting the most public good out of dispossessions of our public land & housing stock.
WE need to have a proper land assessment on our parcels. This would allow us to
implement land rebate incentives that could pay out the difference between
assessment value & asking price by a developer for local hiring, contract & distribution
channels (depending on the land use), project labor agreements, environmental benefit
agreements and more.
a. Specifically: Local Hiring Agreements and local contract sourcing for supply
chains in grocers as we seek to attract grocers.
b. Solar Energy Generation for surrounding areas and neighborhoods.
i. Virginia has a statewide program where solar equipment is tax-exempt
for property taxes. Chesterfield has already taken advantage of the
program. By partnering in this program, we can bring clean energy to
surrounding homes and target cost-burdened homes for relief services.
c. We should have a percentage of those real estate and property taxes dedicated
to a racial equity fund within each district. Out of that dedicated funding we can
resolve disparities in transportation, housing stability & community resources
such as incentives for banks & stores etc to cover profit margin losses.
5. I believe nationwide we need to push for reparative rights that equips localities to
remedy historic harms. We need a reparative tax on previously “greenlined”
communities to pay for an equity fund (like the equity fund put forth in Baltimore by
Brandon Scott). Licenses for marijuana growth and land from vacant city stock to
develop scale up and have distribution channels that they now seem to be setting up for
building white wealth in how the medicinal licenses have been distributed. I think any
tax abatement that delays year one collection needs to have a portion of a tax paid to
help deal with the impact of gentrification and displacement in that neighborhood. I
would implement the Equity Assessment Index to pinpoint where these instances are
persistently having a negative impact. I am also interested and intrigued to learn more
about the split rate Land Value Tax that Willie Hilliard has been speaking on as a way of
taxing and freeing land that developers have just been sitting on in our communities.

Thanks for your patience. I still am thinking through a lot of these complex issues but
here is where my mind is as I am studying. This may pique your interest but because you
do this work you may already know these individuals and how the Philadelphia RDA is
implementing this model https://penniur.upenn.edu/uploads/media/urban-agriculture-
final-report.pdf

Thanks and keep on pushing,

Allan-Charles Chipman