Leechburg looks to the Armstrong County Land Bank to help fight blight

Leechburg Mayor Tony Roppolo thinks joining the Armstrong County Land Bank could help solve the borough’s blight problem.

Roppolo argued that position to council last week after checking out the land bank’s mission.

Council listened but took no action pending the participation of Leechburg Area School District, which would be required.

“This land bank sounds like a pretty good deal from what I understand,” he said.

A governmental entity under the Redevelopment Authority of the County of Armstrong, the land bank’s mission is to identify and acquire abandoned, tax-delinquent properties in member municipalities for potential reuse.

It works with the taxing bodies — borough, county and school district — in getting the properties renovated or removing dilapidated structures to provide vacant lots for redevelopment. At the same time, it facilitates the goal of cleaning up neighborhoods and making communities more livable places.

“We can ask them to evaluate properties and seeing if they are worth restoring and getting back on the tax rolls,” Roppolo said.

The cost of joining is $500, according to the mayor, who said the land bank offers a lot of upside.

“The only down side of this, and it’s a mild one, is that for the first five years the land bank gets 50% of the tax revenue,” Roppolo said, referring to the rehabilitated properties.

Council agreed to approach the Leechburg Area School Board at its January meeting to gauge its interest in participating.

Meanwhile, Roppolo mentioned two abandoned structures, one on Pershing Avenue and one on Second Street, as good examples of where the land bank could help.

“I guess these houses are shedding roofing debris onto neighboring properties,” he said.

Roppolo said the borough needs to act to keep neighboring properties from being damaged and residents from being hurt.

“If someone goes in there, with the weather what it is, and starts a fire, the fire department is going to have their hands full, and there’s going to be adjacent property damage,” Roppolo said.

He suggested getting them placed in the county’s repository for tax delinquent properties and then seeing whether the borough can get the county’s permission to go in, board up and secure the properties.

However, Solicitor Jim Favero said the properties already are in the repository.

“The only way that I can see how this is going to work is if we go to the county to pull the properties out of the land bank and turn them over to the borough,” Favero said.

Otherwise, he said, borough personnel going onto the property could be cited for trespassing.

He said the county likely will argue that it doesn’t own the properties and that they still are in the possession of the people named on the deeds.

“They are a nuisance that is going to have to be dealt with, and, once you identify them as a nuisance, it is going to fall to the municipality to deal with them,” Favero said.