I'm in support of the staff proposal. The city needs more housing, and this is one way to nudge it along. Vacant lots are an eyesore, and can be dangerous. The taxes and fees should definitely give full cost recovery for enforcement and maintenance of the program.

I’d like to reduce some of the vacant lots. I’m in favor of Georgist type taxes to encourage efficient use of land and reduce speculation

I support this proposal. Downtown especially has too many vacant blighted buildings or empty lots that could be housing or businesses.

I support this - landlord and absent owners should be penalized for contributing to our lack of supply for housing and blighted commercial areas

I believe this is a band-aid on a larger issue. Downtown needs stitches, not a bandaid. Raising taxes on undeveloped and/or vacant properties will not encourage development. Properties that are owned by development companies, their taxes are tax deductible. Private persons likely able to afford to buy and renovate, will develop housing too expensive for the people this is trying to help.
I believe a better solution would be to raise everyones taxes a small amount to pay for increased police enforcement. Reading the comments so far, it sounds like most people are complaining about the drugs, theft, and safety associated with homelessness occupying vacant lots. If all we do is kick them out of the vacant lots, then we'll have to get use to them living in bike lanes and walkways.
Again, a bandaid when we need stitches.

This would be game changer for the city. This is a plague of greed and rot and needs to be stopped.

Please do not go to Sun Spa, located at 6804 Fruitridge Rd #A
Sacramento, CA, 95820, as well as q spa, located at 4215 Norwood avenue, suite #12, sacramento, ca, 95838, They will all claim that they are too busy for you.

I believe vacant property should be developed by the owner of such properties, or sell to someone that will develop this property. There is so much red tape that it cannot be sold without all the fees associated with the property. I want to encourage development or sell, cut the length of time that property stands idol and undeveloped, it is "Ghetto" and we need to keep our neighborhoods up.

This discussion will help the city get on the right track. Vacant and unused land is simply a waste of space in a city with limited housing to support its residents. A vacant property tax would encourage development and productive use of our city, while limiting spaces for trash and environmental hazards to pile up.

I strongly support a vacant property tax in Sacramento. Our community suffers from an intense housing crisis while others hoard empty properties to sell off for profit later. This profit is generated at the direct expense of Sacramento itself. When small business are driven out of midtown so that Turton Real Estate can triple the rent, keep the whole place empty for years, and then sell it later for double what they got it for, there is something seriously wrong. When middle class families cannot buy a home because of prices inflated by out-of-town interests making cash offers well over the asking price so that the investment homes stand empty while the number of people living on Sacramento streets increases every year, something is seriously wrong. Unchecked property speculation is destroying small business, entire neighborhood communities, and the spirit of Sacramento. Our community and our lives are not for sale.

Greed cannot be the reason our city buildings lay to waste.

As a resident of Downtown, it’s depressing to see the same vacant building sitting and turning to squalor, being damaged, left abandoned. We need those spaces to be lively and filled with what we love about Sacramento - it’s people.

I support the comprehensive approach outlined in the Law and Legislation Committee Report to address the long-standing issue of vacant properties throughout our city. The dual strategy of implementing a Vacant Property Tax and establishing an Enhanced Vacant Lot and Building Monitoring and Enforcement Program presents a robust and necessary response to the challenges of blight, safety concerns, and the need for infill development.

The proposed enhanced enforcement program is a critical step toward proactive governance. By shifting from a complaint-based system to one with dedicated staff for monitoring, the City can identify and resolve nuisance properties faster, reduce illegal dumping and trespassing, and improve neighborhood appearance year-round. This program will not only hold property owners accountable but also improve community confidence and reduce the strain on City services like the Fire and Public Works departments.

Simultaneously, a carefully structured Vacant Property Tax can incentivize the development or sale of underutilized parcels, directly contributing to the revitalization of our communities and an increase in our housing supply. This aligns perfectly with the City's 2040 General Plan policies to facilitate infill housing and is consistent with the Sacramento Affordable Housing Plan. The potential revenue generated from such a tax could provide a dedicated funding stream for essential services, with voter polling indicating strong support for using these funds to address homelessness and build affordable housing, our city's most pressing challenges.

I'm tired of seeing the same "For Lease" signs all over Sacramento—month after month, year after year, even decade after decade. It's DEPRESSING!

Landlords should be held accountable for letting these properties sit idle, doing nothing to revitalize communities or make Sacramento a more desirable place to live. People—not corporations—should come first. Every person deserves the opportunity to live in a vibrant, thriving community.

Don't give me that tired argument of "Won't somebody look after the poor property owner/corporation? It takes money to revitalize these areas." Get out of here. Every day, people are losing their homes as time marches forward. Everything keeps getting more expensive—bills pile up, and retirement savings may not be enough to cover those rising costs. You can work for 30 years and still can’t stop working just to make ends meet. That’s HORRIBLE!

We need to address this issue head-on. Businesses come and go, but those that are innovative will stay ahead of the curve. When innovative businesses thrive, the whole community thrives.

Activating these vacant lots with real businesses would support the local economy and encourage people to get out and engage with their neighborhoods. Just look at Downtown Sacramento—it's especially disheartening. So many buildings are condemned, abandoned, and neglected. Property owners are sitting on prime real estate while Downtown is left to ROT.

Mandating a return to the office won’t magically revive Downtown. Prosperity will only come when we invest in the spaces themselves—making them places people actually want to be. That means building infrastructure, fostering local businesses, and creating environments where people want to spend their time and money.

I am in strong support of the purposed Vacant Property Tax Measure (LR25-004). As the City of Sacramento grows in the next decades it will be necessary to rebuild, revitalize, and improve the downtown and midtown areas. Allowing property owners to leave their buildings and lots to rot for months or years on end does nothing but blight the City and make it less inviting to new residents, visitors, or new businesses looking to establish themselves in the city. Outside pressure from the city government should be used to encourage growth and development and I would be in favor of earmarking the funds collected via the vacantly tax towards new affordable housing development or at least towards beautification projects.

Sacramento, as the Capitol city of the 4th largest economy in the world and as the most populous state in the richest and most powerful country in history, should be inviting and desirable. It should be clean and functionable with all available spaced being put to use. And it should be city we can be proud to call home, not one where we cringe and walk quickly through when near dilapidated and dangerous lots.

As a downtown resident, I strongly believe we should be using both incentives and punishments in order to keep our central city lively and vibrant. Clearly, on the subject of vacant plots, we need a bigger "stick" to make speculative or otherwise disengaged real estate owners act in the best interest of the people of Sacramento.

While the specifics and nuances discussed in the attached document about how a vacancy tax may take shape are best left to subject matter experts, the concept of a "sh*t-or-get-off-the-pot" tax is both a political winner and can help create a positive feedback loop of central city investment. That is, encouraging property owners to seek out active and productive uses of space will lead to some combination of new businesses and new housing, which then create the environment to further draw visitors and additional new residents (who support those businesses every day).

While additional incentives for small businesses and residential conversions or new builds downtown should also be explored, the reality of the city's structural budget deficit means a vacancy tax applied broadly will have more impact than small, targeted incentives. Not to mention that revenue generated from such a tax could be directed toward such incentives, magnifying the scale of positive outcomes.

People feel safer living and shopping around non-vacant places. Tax these owners to get them to become more proactive in filling empty spaces and simultaneously create more jobs and revenue for the region's projects.

One of the government’s most important jobs is to correct market failures. A vacancy tax would help correct multiple market failures and help revitalize Sacramento.

Housing and rental prices have inflated exponentially. This is exacerbated by the vast amount of vacant property bought out by corporations only to sit until they find a way to bleed people out of house and home with prices. This tax is needed to help our communities. Housing is a human right.

Vacant lots and properties drive up rents and worsen the housing crisis. I support this agenda item, and any subsequent measure that serves to curb landlord greed.