That's one of the goals of city officials this year
MARQUETTE -- It’s a shocking number: 54 percent of the property in the city of Marquette does not owe property taxes to the city. However, the best value of land doesn't always come down to dollars and cents.
"If we have excess property that doesn't serve a greater good, it's not strategic for the long-term benefit of the community, then we should put it back into commerce," said City Commissioner, David Saint-Onge.
And many at the meeting agreed. It's not only the tax dollars the properties would generate, but also returning the land to the private sector takes the responsibility of maintaining the properties off of the city. Any revenue that was generated in taxes could be used to balance the budget. And in a tough economy, everyone is looking for ways to save.
"We, as city commissioners, as we go down this budget process, we need to be able to understand if we have non-working assets out there that can help us balance the budget, we have an obligation to the citizenry to meet that obligation," Saint-Onge said.
Right off the bat, a couple of properties came to Mayor John Kivela’s mind.
"Industrial Park off of Hawley Street, the River Park area,” said Kivela. “Those are kind of big areas. You know there's a lot of small, you know, lots that are peppered around town."
Marketing these properties will be crucial in order to make a sale. The city has a few ideas already.
"Certainly we could post those properties on our Website,” Kivela said. “I’m sure possibly the Lake Superior Community Partnership could help market them through their economic development wing, especially if it was commercial-type property, so I think there's different ways that you could do that but again, that's staffs.”
Theses are initiatives that Mayor Kivela says will likely be looked at this year.
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