As Pittsburgh’s long-struggling land bank notches more sales, a new state law has taken effect that would speed up property transfers, potentially shaving months off a winding process and allowing developers and community groups to take over blighted homes in as little as a year.
The law — which sailed through the state House and Senate and was enacted earlier this month — would allow land banks in Pittsburgh and other county municipalities to more efficiently toss out old tax liabilities that have encumbered thousands of the city’s abandoned properties for decades.
“It’s a tool to help,” said State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny, who sponsored the legislation and served on the land bank’s board for years. “The mission is to get those properties in the hands of folks that can rehab or rebuild them.”
The new legislation adds to a series of recent victories for Pittsburgh’s land bank.
In August, Pittsburgh City Council passed a critical proposal that empowers the land bank to take in properties from the city’s inventory of more than 13,000, opening a well that had previously been closed. The development came after a Post-Gazette investigative series exposed the city’s glut of unsafe homes and a lack of a program to return them to productive use.
But it could take time for Pittsburgh’s land bank to take advantage of the new state law. The land bank has yet to establish a taxing agreement with the city, county and school district, meaning agency officials would have to pay off all tax debt to acquire properties — costs that can run up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s a task that’s made all the more difficult after City Council last month voted to cut half of the land bank’s funding — to $3.5 million from $7 million.
As Pittsburgh waits to ink crucial deals to build a fully functioning land bank, other local land banks have begun to use the tool offered by the new state law.
Representatives from the Tri-COG land bank, which serves more than 20 municipalities east of Pittsburgh, say they plan to file their first round of property transactions using the state law next month. Tri-COG has sold 54 homes and lots since its launch in 2017 — three years after Pittsburgh’s land bank was created — with 78 more in the pipeline.
“The longer that properties are legally in the hands of owners who are deceased, or have abandoned them, the more vulnerable they are,” said An Lewis, executive director of the Tri-COG land bank. The new legislation “may make the difference between an abandoned property being savable or a demolition.”
Unlike Pittsburgh's land bank, Tri-COG has buy-in from its local taxing bodies — the municipalities, county and school districts — and can acquire new properties for as little as $3,000 in fees without assuming any of the tax liability.
“It does make the transaction of every property more efficient,” Jamil Bey, a Pittsburgh land bank board member, said of the new state law. “No transaction should take three years anymore.”
In many cases, community groups’ fight to take hold of dilapidated city-owned properties has taken upwards of five years, if it succeeds at all, records and interviews show. In that time, properties from Hazelwood to Garfield have continued to deteriorate, posing dangers to neighboring residents.
The land bank has made inroads on blighted neighborhoods this summer — selling five properties in Hazelwood, Mt. Washington and Larimer.
“We’re finally seeing progress,” said Mr. Bey. “I’m very encouraged.”
Neena Hagen: nhagen@post-gazette.com
First Published: September 24, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: September 25, 2023, 2:25 a.m.
