KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A lunchtime post on Mayor Quinton Lucas' social media accounts shed a little bit of light on conversations that had already started around City Hall and City Council about what to do with vacant properties and buildings in the city. A "vacant land tax," the post writes, "would allow us to activate blighting/vacant lots and abandoned structures throughout the City that are neglected often by resourced owners banking land, creating long-term harms for all, not by those lacking means." Screenshot "On streets where we're seeing all types of improvements, Troost Avenue, Prospect, Independence, and beyond, you still see lots of vacant properties, properties that have been abandoned, properties that could be put to a better use," Lucas said in a follow up interview Monday. It is especially true for Indian Mound resident Steven Shafer who has lived his whole life in Northeast Kansas City and says the neighborhood has slowly become harder to recognize. "People just do not take pride in their property," Shafer said. In Shafer's case, that created a fire in the vacant property down the block early Monday morning but there were a handful of other overgrown lots or homes nearby that keep grabbing his attention for the wrong reasons. "We call the 311 Action Center," Shafer said. "Now, whether the action center does anything, that's another thing." The challenge around vacant land is a massive one. KCPD using multiple strategies to stop property crimes in Westport City data says there were 17,856 identified vacant properties as of late 2023, accounting for 9% of the properties in the city and 6% of its acreage. About a fifth of those are publicly owned, either by the Kansas City Land Bank, Homesteading Authority, or the City while more than a fifth are owned by out of city owners. Half of those owners don't live in Missouri either. Any potential "vacant land tax" would be meant as a deterrent for landowners sitting on their properties for extended periods of time, trying to push them to either redevelop or sell to someone who will. Lucas and Councilmember Crispin Rea point out that a state statute might rule out a tax, but the point is to start the conversation around incentive or deterrents to get landowners to act. "It is complex, as you can imagine, and its something that we need to go in with a scalpel and be very strategic with how we create rules and regulation with something like this," Rea said. "You want to avoid unintended consequences." City documents suggest that could be a situation like creating additional barriers to owners who intend to fix up a property but hit financial hardships. "We are seeing this incredible growth in Kansas City continue," Lucas said. "It shouldn't just be in some neighborhoods and it shouldn't be held up by speculators everywhere." Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android Councilman Rea says he's already help get new software to better track and register vacant properties. He says the city has had a vacant property list that hasn't been well-staffed or maintained, and enforcing the fines for not registering would be another way to help activate vacant space.