Arnold Council unanimously approves joining land bank

As expected, the Westmoreland County Land Bank completed its local trifecta Tuesday when Arnold Council unanimously voted to join.

Noting that the New Kensington-Arnold School Board and New Kensington Council recently voted to join the agency and that the Arnold Redevelopment Authority offered to pay the city’s $5,000 one-time membership fee, Mayor Joseph Bia said, “I think those are three very solid endorsements for us joining the land bank.”

Returning abandoned and blighted real estate to the tax rolls, with the cooperation of member municipalities, is the land bank’s mission. It seeks to do that by identifying such properties, researching their real estate records, buying them and then either repairing or demolishing existing structures in order to market them.

Those activities are financed through the $5,000 membership fee, which school districts do not have to pay, and the diversion of half the tax revenue collected on the market properties to the land bank for five years.

Battling the stubborn problem of urban blight in their cities for decades, Arnold and New Kensington officials were anxious to add another weapon to their arsenal. The only snag was getting approval from the school board since the land bank’s process includes exonerating delinquent taxes on abandoned properties and the school board is a taxing body.

That hurdle was cleared Tuesday when the school board gave its approval.

Councilman George Hawdon described membership in the land bank, which began operations in 2014, as “another tool in the toolbox” to counter blight and improve the city.