Gross introduces land bank legislation

Thousands of vacant, blighted and abandoned properties in Pittsburgh would be acquired and redeveloped or sold under legislation introduced this morning by District 7 city councilor Deb Gross.

The legislation calls for the creation of a Pittsburgh land bank, which would operate as a repository for properties that often have little prospect of redevelopment, costing the city millions and bringing down the value of surrounding property.

"The legislation allows us to stabilize our housing infrastructure," Gross says. "It's basically a tool for neighborhoods to rebuild."

Properties in the land bank can be used for everything form community projects like urban gardens or green spaces to private developments and side yards.

Mayor Peduto has said on numerous occasions that hes very supportive of land-banking," says Liz Hersh, executive director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. "The community has done a lot of work on what a land bank might look like.

Although Pittsburgh already has a role in property redevelopment, the process is often time consuming and cumbersome for developers or community organizations who must negotiate existing tax liabilities and potentially conflicting property ownership claims.

In the context of a land bank, those liabilities and claims of ownership have already been dissolved, creating a single entity separate from the city responsible for helping communities put blighted and abandoned land back to use.

Gross' bill comes just a day after Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter signed legislation authorizing what will likely become the largest city to have a land bank.

That's no coincidence; Philadelphia's legislation served as a model. Pennsylvania land banks were authorized under state legislation enacted late in 2012.

Prior to this law ... there really was no one who was authorized at the local level to look at blighted, vacant or tax foreclosed property, Hersh says. "It was essentially nobodys job to create an inventory to get clear titles or to market those properties in a comprehensive way.

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Gross introduces land bank legislation