Redevelopment plan defended
The redevelopment plan for Uniontown’s North Gallatin Avenue neighborhood is not a moneymaker for owners of blighted houses and rental properties, a city official said. The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority has acquired and worked with the city to demolish numerous blighted properties in that neighborhood in accordance with a revitalization plan that was prepared with input from residents in 2005, said authority executive director Mark Yauger.
Residents who helped develop the plan went on to form the Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens Association and the plan is the heart of the Elm Street revitalization program.
The city applied and received an Elm Street program designation for the neighborhood from the state in 2007. The designation brought the city a $250,000 residential reinvestment grant and a $150,000 grant to cover the Elm Street manager’s salary.
The residential reinvestment grant was awarded for blight removal, housing rehabilitation, new sidewalks and streetlights.
Also in 2007, the city also received a $500,000 Core Communities grant from the state. The grant was for acquiring and demolishing 25 vacant blighted properties to make room for construction of 25 new houses on Maple and Walnut streets.
At a concerned citizens association meeting Wednesday, residents voiced their opposition to a new city property maintenance ordinance and, at one point, they expressed displeasure with the way the authority and city handle the property acquisitions and demolitions.
Residents said some landlords make money from rent for years, but don’t maintain the properties and allow them to become blighted. Then the authority buys the properties and pays the city with the grant money to perform the demolitions.
Residents also said some of the lots where the city has demolished houses remain filled with the remains of the houses for some time after the demolitions are complete.
Yauger said some of the properties that have been demolished were given to the authority, but others were purchased after appraisals were conducted.
People have bought properties in the neighborhood and then gave them to the authority after realizing the structures were in such bad condition that they could not be fixed up or after they were cited or learned they could be cited for building code violations, Yauger said.
A state-certified appraiser appraises each property the authority plans to buy, he said.
Removing blight is the first step cited in the redevelopment plan and the high number of dilapidated rentals in the neighborhood was the primary issue residents raised when the plan was being created, Yauger said.
“That shaped our plan of attack. That’s directly out of our Elm Street plan, which is a long-term plan,” Yauger said. “Until we remove the blight, it will be difficult to attract new development to the neighborhood. You can’t sell a property next to a dilapidated property.”
If the city has to demolish an unsafe property the authority doesn’t own, a lien for the cost of the demolition is attached to the property, Yauger said.
The authority owns all the properties that have been demolished so far, he said.
“We’re trying to change the way of life out there,” Yauger said. “This is not a government handout.”
He said many landlords do a good job of maintaining their rental properties and quality rentals are needed.
“We need pride of ownership, whether it’s a rental or a private home,” Yauger said.
The authority and city are planning 25 more demolitions using the city’s share of a $1.8 million neighborhood stabilization grant from federal economic stimulus funds, he said. Connellsville and Masontown also are receiving shares of that money.
A streetscape project and a home façade improvement program are the steps that follow blight removal in the revitalization plan, Yauger said.
Developments such as the construction of 30 rent-to-own homes in the Gallatin Avenue, Lafayette and East End neighborhoods, the planned construction of 25 new houses on Maple and Walnut streets and plans to build an apartment building for senior citizens at the site of American Legion Post 51 on North Gallatin Avenue are taking place sooner than what was anticipated in the revitalization plan, he said.
Plans to build the 25 new houses have encountered some problems, but the authority is continuing to pursue the project.
Yauger said proceeds from bond sales were supposed to be used to finance construction, but a decline in the bond market caused by the overall downturn in the economy has caused the financing agency to stop accepting applications.
The authority and the developer are pursuing other funding sources, Yauger said.
Yauger also said the authority has acquired 24 of the 25 properties needed for the new houses, but months of negotiations with the owner of the last property have been have been fruitless so far.