City’s land bank aims to start up next year
More than three years after Pittsburgh passed legislation to create a land bank to tackle blighted and tax-delinquent properties, board members say they hope to see it up and running next year.
The Pittsburgh Land Bank has yet to acquire any properties. Before it can be fully operating, it must finalize a strategic plan, as well as policies and procedures that must be approved by city council. It must also finalize agreements with the city and Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Additionally, it must secure funding.
The land bank board’s vice chairman, Jamil Bey, said he’s hoping that it will be
operational by next summer.
“The question now becomes, How are we going to generate funds outside the URA or the city of Pittsburgh?” said state Sen. Wayne Fontana, a land bank board member.
He said he hopes the land bank will be operational by the middle of next year.
The land bank aims to take vacant and distressed properties and return them to productive use.
The creation of Pittsburgh’s land bank in 2014 was controversial. The bill, originally introduced by Councilwoman Deb Gross, was opposed by a number of community members and council members who feared a “land grab” and said they didn’t want to see land sold without community input. A compromise bill eventually passed council, with most members supporting it.
Problems with vacant housing are among the top concerns residents have, said Zeba Ahmed, community engagement coordinator for North Side neighborhood groups Perry Hilltop and Fineview-Citizens Councils.
“I really look forward to when things get moving,” she told Pittsburgh Land Bank board members at their monthly meeting last week.
The land bank board meets monthly, and while it doesn’t have it’s own full-time staff, it has contracted with the URA to have aURA employee act as administrator.
City council members are scheduledto discuss the land bank at a Dec. 14 post-agenda meeting and public hearing.
Including Pittsburgh’s, 18 land banks operate statewide, according to Winnie Branton, who provides technical assistance to the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania on blighted properties and land banks. She testified last week before a state House Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Harrisburg.
Across Pennsylvania, various land banks are run by cities, counties, or in some cases more than one city in a combined multi-municipal land bank.
Despite the state law that allowed the creation of land banks being 5 years old, Ms. Branton said many land banks are just getting started.
House members heard testimony last week from land bank representatives from Philadelphia and Lackawanna and Northumberland counties.
“This is hard work and it’s expensive. A lot of the properties have no value,” so land banks must work diligently to match properties with a neighbor who will care for them or assemble into a larger parcel for redevelopment, Ms. Branton said.
She praised the Pittsburgh Land Bank’s public engagement process, outreach and easy-to-read website explanations
“All of that was well done in terms of trying to explain it to the public,” she said.
The only other land bank in Allegheny County is the Tri-COG Land Bank, which operates in a 21-municipality area including Braddock Hills, Clairton, Dravosburg, East Pittsburgh, Edgewood, Etna, McKeesport, Forest Millvale, Monroeville, Hills, North Braddock, Pitcairn, Rankin, Sharpsburg, South Versailles, Swissvale and Turtle Creek.
That land bank formed earlier this year but was the result of years of work, executive An Lewis said.
“Building the political will to invest money in a brand new program, that takes a lot of conversation,” she said. Key to building support for the land bank was a 2012 analysis that showed the cost of blighted properties in terms of millions of dollars spent in code enforcement, police and fire services, demolitions and lost tax collections. The agency is moving forward with the acquisition of its first 10 properties, and expects to own them sometime next year, she said. At the state House Urban Affairs committee meeting last week, several testifiers discussed Senate Bill 667, which has passed the Senate and is before the House committee. It would give some of the powers of a land bank to redevelopment authorities, which several speakers opposed.