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Luzerne County townships and boroughs can now submit abandoned properties for possible inclusion in a new blighted property database.
The county Blighted Property Review Committee compiling the database was created in 2016 but had been in limbo much of 2018 as council resolved issues with the ordinance wording and budgeting. The county Redevelopment Authority has agreed to reimburse the county $15,000 for administrative and legal assistance to carrying out the mission.
Councilman Harry Haas, who pushed for the blight initiative, said all lingering concerns have been addressed, freeing the committee to start accepting applications.
The committee received at least three applications from municipalities in recent weeks, but Haas said they may be incomplete and require additional information before they can be processed.
Once the database is completed, the Redevelopment Authority may consider taking action to remediate problems, including acquisition, demolition and rehabilitation, officials have said.
The committee is set to meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre to review the initial submissions and discuss the possibility of creating an online application process, the agenda says.
“We’re very excited to look at some applications for blighted property,” Haas told his council colleagues last week.
Under the committee’s plan, vacant properties could be declared blighted and placed in the database for numerous reasons, including public nuisance code violations, safety problems that may attract and endanger children, unaddressed vermin infestations or broken or disconnected utilities, plumbing, heating or sewage systems.
Officials in the county’s 72 boroughs and townships must nominate properties and provide documentation on a structure’s last known date of occupancy, blight conditions and citations and other efforts to try to force the owners to address deficiencies.
The county’s four cities — Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, Nanticoke and Pittston — were not included in the program because they have their own redevelopment authorities, although it’s possible they could be added down the road, officials have said.
Owners will have an opportunity to address deficiencies or challenge inclusion of their structures in the database.
Upheld or uncontested violations not addressed by property owners within six months result in a certification hearing formally placing a property in the blight database. Once that happens, the authority can take action or do nothing — a decision that will hinge largely on its access to funding.
Approximately 19,749 dwellings are vacant in the county, and an estimated 3,840 are blighted, committee members have said. Eyesore properties devalue neighboring structures and cause taxing bodies to miss out on real estate tax revenue, they maintained.
“There’s clearly a need,” Haas said last week.
The database is meant as a resource for municipalities that have “exhausted other options” to force owners to make repairs, he said.
“I think once we see success, other municipalities will be encouraged to apply,” he said.
In addition to Haas, the committee members are Andrew Holter, Scott Linde, George Prehatin and county Operational Services Division Head Edmund O’Neill.
Applications and information about committee protocols are available on the council-related committees section at www.luzernecounty.org.