Land bank still trying to get off ground one year later
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A year after its creation, Pittsburgh's land-banking program is trying to find money and nail down a process for turning blighted properties into development opportunities citywide.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl created the program to bring investment -- one parcel at a time, if necessary -- to some of the city's most troubled neighborhoods.
Kim Graziani, the mayor's director of neighborhood initiatives, said a task force has spent the last year laying groundwork for a program that she believes has the potential to transform large portions of neighborhoods. So far, no properties have been banked under the new program.
The initial work has included searching for a sustainable funding source and determining when, and how, to add tax-delinquent properties to the bank. Ms. Graziani said the city wants to work with property owners behind on their taxes, but first the cycle of delinquency and property abandonment that contributes to crime, lower home values and other problems in some neighborhoods must be broken.
Rob Stephany, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said the issue is "really, really important" and worthy of the city's attention even as it battles chronic financial problems and other high-profile issues.
"I totally appreciate that the mayor is trying to get us all to understand this better," he said.
For years, the city has operated a land bank exclusively for community development groups, a venture paid for with funds culled from various departments. However, for financial reasons, the bank is limited to 300 properties at a time -- a fraction of the delinquent properties citywide.
Ms. Graziani wants her program to have much broader dimensions -- the capacity to hold and maintain hundreds of additional properties and market them to individuals, companies or whoever else might want them. She said the city, neighborhood residents and community groups will have a voice in how the properties are used.
"I think there has to be that buy-in from the local area as well as from the city," she said.
The idea has the support of community activists, including Aggie Brose, chairwoman of Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group and deputy director of Bloomfield-Garfield Corp.
"Let's get private developers in, and let's build our city," she said. It's important, she said, that the city assemble a "critical mass" of properties for development in a given neighborhood and make it as easy as possible for developers to obtain clear titles and pursue projects that have community support.
Ms. Graziani said she hopes to build on the success of the redevelopment authority, which in recent years has assembled sites for investment in troubled neighborhoods. Projects included a library, YMCA, grocery store and housing in the Hill District and a coffee shop, library and "Garden Theater Block" on the North Side.
Mr. Stephany said redevelopment law places restrictions on his projects, however, while Ms. Graziani's program could be a "little more fleet-footed." Ms. Graziani said she envisions various kinds of projects, from the sale of a lot or two to an individual home builder to the sale of numerous properties to a big developer.
First Published February 28, 2011 12:00 am
