40 towns join forces to create land bank

The proliferation of boarded-up windows, crumbling porches and vine-covered walls in once-booming steel towns doesn't begin to tell the whole story.

A fuller picture comes into focus in an analysis of how much blighted, abandoned and tax-delinquent properties cost the towns in which they are located. The report was commissioned by the Steel Valley, Turtle Creek Valley and Twin Rivers councils of governments, which represent 40 municipalities in Allegheny County.

"There were a lot of takeaways from that analysis," said An Lewis, executive director of the Steel Valley COG. "One of the big ones was blight is enormously expensive."

The analysis, presented in September, found 20,077 vacant lots and 7,158 parcels with blighted structures that cost local governments more than $10.7 million a year in direct municipal services, such as police, fire and code enforcement. They also account for nearly $8.7 million in lost annual tax revenue. But the biggest drain was on neighboring non-blighted properties, which the report found suffered a total loss of between $218 million and $247 million in property values. At the time of the study, the councils represented 41 municipalities; West Mifflin withdrew from the Steel Valley COG last year.

The findings prompted the three COGs, called the "Tri-COG Collaborative," to begin putting together a draft plan, expected to be finished in June, to establish a land bank for member municipalities that opt to participate.

A state law passed in 2012 allows municipalities with a population of 10,000 or more, or consortiums of smaller municipalities that together add up to more than 10,000 residents, to set up the public agencies, which are tasked specifically with acquiring, maintaining and returning problem properties to productive use, either through direct sales, transfer or leases.

PG chart: Allegheny County Councils of government (Click image for larger version)

"We are studying land banks across the U.S.," said John Palyo, executive director of the Twin Rivers COG. "While the law is new to Pennsylvania, it's not new for the country."

Though Westmoreland County established a countywide land bank, Mr. Palyo said the longstanding relationships formed by the councils of governments, intended to foster shared services and governmental cooperation, make them a natural framework in Allegheny County.

And though a proposal to establish a land bank in Pittsburgh has bogged down in controversy, mainly over whether city council will have the ability to sign off on individual property dispositions, outlying towns that have long struggled with declining population and escalating blight see it as a promising new tool.

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40 towns join forces to create land bank