Localities Look To an Untapped 'Goldmine' of Potential Revenue

Source: Route Fifty By Bill Lucia, Executive Director

A new initiative focuses on how cities and counties can capitalize on underused public property, like parking lots and office space.

Ben McAdams believes local governments are sitting on a "goldmine" of untapped revenue that doesn't depend on taxes or fees and that could help them address pressing issues, like affordable housing.

McAdams served as mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah from 2013 until 2019 and, during that time, backed an initiative to take stock of the county's "commercially viable," publicly owned real estate assets.

The results of that accounting, he said, "were astounding." In Salt Lake County, he explained, the inventory revealed government property worth about $10 billion. This included an often unfilled county-owned parking lot he could see from the window of the mayor's office.

The lot, he noted, "sits empty most of the time in an area of our capital city that is incredibly valuable."

Before this work looking at underused public property went too far, McAdams, a Democrat, won a seat in the U.S. House, where he served one term. And, in the meantime, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, forcing the county to focus on other priorities.