Housing authority demolishes apartment building
Work started last week to demolish a two-unit Fayette County Housing Authority apartment building on Coolspring Street in Uniontown and completely renovate the 11 apartments in two other buildings. Housing Authority Executive Director Tom Harkless discussed the work Tuesday with the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority.
Harkless said the authority plans to completely renovate one of its properties each year for the next five years. He said the $900,000 Coolspring Street project is the first on the list.
“This is the county seat,” Harkless said. “We believe we are reinvesting in the city.”
He said the Coolspring Street apartments were among 25 units “sprinkled” on six parcels of land in the mid-1980s.
When the work is completed in January or February, each apartment will have its own walkway to its door, fenced-in back yards and off-street parking.
Funded by the federal Housing and Urban Development department, the renovations also include new interiors, removing the existing brick exterior and installing new bricks. Windows will be relocated so front porches can be built.
When completed, the two-story apartment buildings will have 30-year life expectancies.
Harkless said tenants will have to cut the lawns, trim the shrubs and shovel walkways in the winter.
The finished apartments could be placed in a home ownership program, he said.
“It sounds like it will be a worthwhile project,” said Uniontown Redevelopment Authority Chairman Alvin Mundel.
Harkless said the housing authority recently applied to HUD for $2 million to demolish 37 buildings containing 255 of the authority’s 1,800 apartments throughout the county.
The apartment buildings left standing will be “gut” rehabilitated, like the Coolspring Street apartments, or torn down and then rebuilt as single-family homes.
He said the goal is to develop a home ownership program and build no more long rows of apartments.
Harkless also said the authority might build single-family houses or duplexes on vacant lots in existing neighborhoods. He called it “in filling.”
Redevelopment Authority Executive Director William Long said in-fill housing would work in certain neighborhoods.
Authority executive director Raymond Polaski also attended the city redevelopment authority meeting.
Polaski responded to questions about the Fayette County Business Park along Route 40 in South Union Township.
Questions had been raised previously about the county moving a mental health/mental retardation office out of the city to the business park.
Polaski said the agency had workers in several offices in the county and was trying to consolidate them into one building. Polaski said the county authority will help the city find a tenant to replace the county’s mental health office.
Mundel asked if retail businesses will be permitted in the tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone portion of the park?
Polaski said that section of the property is zoned for industrial business development, but “we will revisit that.”
He said the zoning has to be changed, because the roads around the park would not support an industrial development. A highway system is needed for industry, he said.
Mundel said downtown Uniontown would become “totally barren” if retail businesses are permitted in the KOZ.
Polaski said he agreed with Mundel and pointed out that county and South Union Township officials were considering that issue.
He said the county redevelopment authority is not actively seeking any particular business for the KOZ.