THE GUARDIAN attended the public meeting on the Library project for their downtown revitalization in Nampa. The City of Nampa has nailed down land for half a city block at $35/square foot or $1.6MM for roughly 45,000 square feet of land. The other half of the block where a church is the main occupant, the price may be as much as $65/square foot.
All of this points out one of the main reasons for urban blight. The cost of land, demolition and improvements. Price levels for property can be an obstacle when working with a finite amount of capital. The hurdle of obtaining land at a reasonable cost can put a project out of the scope of profitability. It also explains why government is the main developer of blighted properties in downtown locations. They have the means to extract money from the public via taxation to pay for property considered not worth the effort to most folks in the private sector development arena.
Dirt is still too cheap outside of most downtown core areas to make urban renewal a practical reality for most private developers. Hence, we move forward into the new century with urban sprawl and no substantial renewal of used up buildings and the thoughts of "sustainable communities" in most downtown's of America.
Finally, with all the apparent public support for a new library in downtown Nampa why are the City Deciders not allowing the people of Nampa to vote a bond election for their new library. It simply does not add up if the public support is already there, a bond election for this project would seem a fairly straight forward proposition. The Nampa LIbrary project could have been a done deal during next weeks primary election on the 27th of May.
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