Michael Neibauer reports that Shiloh Baptist Church, who owns several vacant properties along a stretch of 9th Street NW (check out our thorough history of covering these properties here), could get a tax break for redeveloping them. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has proposed legislation which would reclassify the properties at 1526, 1528, 1532, 1533 and 1534 9th Street NW as Class 1 residential (instead of Class 3 vacant) if Shiloh spends money they received from the sale of other buildings on 8th Street on its planned Victory Village complex at those addresses. (Victory Village, which broke ground last week, will also be tax-exempt, once it gets built.) So, excuse me while I scratch my head a bit: wasn’t it just last year that the city found that the Church’s properties had been improperly classified, causing the city to miss out on nearly $100,000 in revenue — and now Evans wants to change that back, during a period of financial drought, no less? If the idea of the city bending over backwards to give the reward of a sizable tax break to a property owner who took nearly four years to really get cracking on fixing up some of the city’s most loudly-complained about buildings strikes you as odd, you’re not alone.