Blight reduction strategies up for discussion at Westmoreland County seminar

Community leaders and real estate experts will convene next week at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg to discuss strategies to reduce blight.

The June 25 seminar will feature local and national speakers and training to provide insight on understanding property market dynamics, analyzing data to understand neighborhood conditions, strategic code enforcement programs and tools that communities in Pennsylvania can use in order to address problem properties, according to Lindsay Neary, spokeswoman for the Realtors Association of Westmoreland, Indiana and Mon Valley.

The association is sponsoring the event through a grant from the National Association of Realtors’ Rural Outreach Initiative.

“Blighted residential buildings and vacant commercial properties are some of the issues in our neighborhoods that can be addressed. There are tools and resources available to aid in creating more walkable, sustainable and vibrant areas that will draw people to live and stay here,” said Adrienne “Abe” Wagner, government affairs chairwoman for the local Realtors association.

Speakers scheduled to appear include:

• Karen Black, the chief executive officer of May 8 Consulting, Inc. is a woman-owned social impact consulting firm. Black is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in the Urban Studies Department and Senior Research Fellow at the Drexel University Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation. She will discuss data analysis and how to understand neighborhood conditions and the Pennsylvania Problem Properties Toolkit.

• Liz Kozub, the associate director of National Leadership and Education for the Center for Community Progress. She manages training opportunities that aim to build a common awareness of the problem properties within communities and assist community leaders in determining roles each can play in a comprehensive approach to vacancy and abandonment.

• Timothy Wratcher, a shareholder at Knox Law and lead at Knox Law Public Strategies, focusing on federal Opportunity Zone Development and investments.

Westmoreland County Deputy Planning Director Brian Lawrence and Indiana planning chief Josh Krug are slated to speak.

Officials have estimated that there are as many as 900 blighted properties throughout Westmoreland County.

Commissioners last year instituted a $15 fee assessed to all deeds and mortgage filings to pay for a program to demolish blighted properties. Officials in April identified the first eight properties earmarked for demolition using money generated by the new fee.

The Realtors association opposed implementation of the demolition fee.