Uniontown seeks $500,000 grant
The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority on Friday approved an application for a $500,000 state grant that would be a component of a plan to revitalize the North Gallatin Avenue neighborhood. After conducting a public hearing about the application, authority board members voted unanimously in favor of submitting the application to the Department of Economic and Community Development’s (DCED) Core Communities Program.
Authority Director Mark Yauger said the money would be used to acquire vacant and blighted properties on the west side of North Gallatin Avenue, clean up the lots and prepare them for construction of 25 single-family homes and townhouses or duplexes that would be sold to moderate income buyers.
The Core Communities grant would be used in combination with a $250,000 DCED Elm Street Program grant, which the authority has already applied for and believes it will receive, in the revitalization effort. A grant for construction money would also be sought if the Core grant were approved.
Also involved in the project is Community Action of Fayette County, which owns about half of the targeted properties, and Threshold Housing Development Inc. of Uniontown, which would apply to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Association’s Home Ownership Choice Program for the construction grant, and the nonprofit Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens Association, which worked with the city and authority on the Elm Street grant application.
The Elm Street grant would be used for streetscape improvements throughout the neighborhood and to hire a manager to work with the GACCA to advance other improvements.
Janet Bill, GACCA chairwoman, said the organization supports the project, but it wants to make sure the homes blend in with the existing homes in the neighborhood.
The new homes would have a Victorian architectural style to match the existing houses, Yauger said.
GACCA member Terry Martin said he does not want the development to be a public housing project.
Yauger said it would not be public housing. He said the goal would be to attract moderate-income homebuyers, but some low-income buyers could qualify to purchase the dwellings.
Mayor James Sileo said he and City Council support the authority’s efforts, and the project would improve the neighborhood.
“That would certainly enhance North Gallatin Avenue,” Sileo said. “I’m proud of everybody … “The mayor and council are behind you guys 100 percent.”
He said there is blight in some parts of the neighborhood, but he appreciates residents who take pride in maintaining their houses and properties.
Yauger said the authority board also supports the effort and he commended city code enforcement officer Myron Nypaver for addressing building code violations.
Nypaver said revitalization planning and code enforcement already have had an effect, noting that one house in the neighborhood was recently sold for more than $90,000.
He said the authority and Yauger have supported demolition and acquisition of blighted properties throughout the city.
“We can see the progress that can be made if we’re all on the same page,” authority Chairman John Oris said.
If all the plans come to fruition, the North Gallatin Avenue area would be a model for neighborhood revitalization, Yauger said.
“We will have a neighborhood that will a model for the state of Pennsylvania,” Yauger said.
Sileo said the city would crumble without its residential neighborhoods.
He said he hopes the plans for North Gallatin Avenue will include a park.
Yauger said a park is part of the plans. He said a study of the city’s parks, which Councilman Joseph Giachetti is overseeing, could result in an additional “tot lot” or park in the neighborhood.