JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – Local leaders have been trying to come up with the solution to a problem that has been a part of the Jefferson County community for many years: Blight.
When a person abandons their home or business, they create a blighted property.
Blighted properties are properties that are dilapidated, unsafe, and unsightly. Local officials argue that these properties are not only unsightly, but they can also be a danger to the community in a variety of ways.
Last week, community leaders in Jefferson County held a meeting to try and address the issue of blighted properties. The meeting included community leaders from Jefferson County, Punxsutawney Borough, Brookville Borough, Heath Township, and Reynoldsville Borough. The meeting was held to hear concerns about how blight impacts these communities, and to come up with solutions as to what these communities can do to deal with it.
“The plan was to get as many in the room as we could from Jefferson County so we could sit and share conversations about interpretations of blight,” Jefferson County County Commissioner Herb Bullers told exploreJeffersonpa.com.
According to William Setree, Director of Jefferson County Community Development, when municipalities are dealing with blight in Jefferson County, they are required to follow whatever ordinances they may have on the subject. This varies between municipalities. After they have followed the procedure set forth by their ordinance, they then have to go through a process to demolish the property.
Setree and Bullers said that blighted properties can pose a threat to the safety of a community.
“Safety is a big concern,” Setree said. “Some of the buildings’ roofs are collapsing, porches are collapsing, they could fall out onto the sidewalk.”
“What we find is when you have a blighted piece of property, it just like has a welcome sign to the younger generation around town,” Bullers said “The idea is to eliminate as much of that as we can.”
Blighted Property, Main Street, Brookville.
The two added that blighted properties also impact property values of the properties surrounding it.
“If there’s a blighted property beside your house, what that does is it takes away from the value of your property,” Bullers said. “You want people to come in, you want them to look at your town, you want them to drive around, you want them to see nice things.”
“I think the solution has to start at the local level,” Satree said.
“We’re just trying to bring the awareness so that the towns and townships are all thinking the same way and working to prevent and get rid of the blight we have,” Bullers added.
“Our full intent was basically just to allow everybody the chance to hear the concerns from everybody else,” Bullers said. “It seems like no matter where you go (blight is) a huge topic.”
While Jefferson County does not have a housing redevelopment authority, it does administer limited funding through the Department of Development to help deal with the issue of blight.
“I think their main concern was trying to find the funding to address it and also trying to find ways to prevent it,” Setree said. “A lot of the municipalities have been working towards eliminating it.”
The nature of this meeting leaves it up to municipalities to deal with the issue of blight, however, some counties are beginning to take a different approach towards dealing with the problem.
Pictured above: William Setree and Herb Bullers
Clarion County
Clarion County has been trying to take a similar approach to deal with blight, though it has taken somewhat longer.
The county is working to revitalize an inactive program – the Clarion County Housing Authority.
“We’re actually working with the Clarion County Housing Authority to (revitalize) the Clarion County Redevelopment Authority,” County Commissioner Ed Heasley told exploreJeffersonpa.com.
Revitalizing the program would give the county more power to address local blight by using state and federal funds to purchase and renovate blighted properties. The two entities would work under the same umbrella but be two separate entities.
Penny Campbell, Executive Director of the Clarion County Housing Authority, said that Clarion County has had an established redevelopment authority for a number of years, but it has largely remained inactive. She believes that reactivating it may be one way to address blight.
Campbell said that blight impacts things like property values, public safety, and community morale.
“If you have a property that’s all boarded up, and it starts to fall in on itself; things like that can be a safety concern,” Campbell said. “I wouldn’t want to be next door to a house that’s falling in.
“I know that the commissioners are looking at blight,” Campbell said. “Blight has kind of become a hot topic across the state.”
Campbell said the County Commissioners were discussing a variety of options for addressing blight, but that ultimately revitalizing the redevelopment authority seemed like the most logical option.
Campbell began looking into reactivating the Clarion County Housing Redevelopment Authority after the passage of Act 33, an act that allowed County Redevelopment Authorities to begin acting as land banks. Landbanks are community organizations that are allowed to purchase parcels of land for future use or development.
Before the passage of Act 33, Campbell claims that establishing a landbank in Clarion County would have been a very lengthy and expensive process. Now, Clarion County can reactivate the Redevelopment Authority at no cost to taxpayers.
“This is an option to address blight in the county. We are trying to be proactive,” Campbell said.
“Our goal is to take the property that no one else wants and can afford to rehabilitate, rehabilitate them and turn them back over to the private sector.”
Campbell said this could mean the redevelopment of any plot of blighted property in the county, including old businesses.
“That could mean demolishing some blighted property, turning it into green space and selling the property.
“We (the program) would be a last resort to these properties. We would take the properties that no one else wants and can do anything with.”
According to Cambell, if the Redevelopment Authority were to be revitalized, it would operate entirely from state and federal grants.
“There’s no county funding that would be attached to this at all,” Campbell explained.
“Someone’s using the funding, so why not Clarion?”
“If you’re from Clarion, you’re proud of your town, and you want to make sure that it continues to be a town you are proud of, then you will like this program.”
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