City of Pittsburgh - File #: 2014-0025

• File #: 2014-0025
• Version: 4
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Passed Finally
• File created: 1/14/2014
• In control: Committee on Land Use and Economic Development
• Final action: 4/22/2014
• Enactment date: 4/22/2014
• Enactment #: 10
• Effective date: 4/22/2014
• Title: Ordinance supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title One, Administrative, Article IX Boards, Commissions, by adding Chapter 174 A, entitled, The Pittsburgh Land Bank.
• Sponsors: Deborah L. Gross
• Indexes: PGH. CODE ORDINANCES TITLE 01 - ADMINISTRATIVE

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
4/22/2014	4	City Council	Passed Finally, As Amended	Pass
4/22/2014	4	City Council	AMENDED	Pass
4/22/2014	4	City Council	Reconsidered	Pass
4/22/2014	4	Mayor	Signed by the Mayor
4/14/2014	3	City Council	AMENDED	Pass
4/14/2014	3	City Council	Passed Finally, As Amended	Pass
4/9/2014	2	Standing Committee	AMENDED	Pass
4/9/2014	2	Standing Committee	AMENDED	Pass
4/9/2014	2	Standing Committee	AMENDED	Pass
4/9/2014	2	Standing Committee	Affirmatively Recommended as Amended	Pass
1/22/2014	1	Standing Committee	Held in Committee	Fail
1/22/2014	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Public Hearing	Pass
1/22/2014	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Post Agenda	Pass
1/14/2014	1	City Council	Read and referred

title
Ordinance supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title One, Administrative, Article IX Boards, Commissions, by adding Chapter 174 A, entitled, The Pittsburgh Land Bank.
body
WHEREAS, Blighted and abandoned real estate imposes significant costs on neighborhoods and communities in the City of Pittsburgh by lowering property values, increasing fire and police protection costs, decreasing tax revenues, and undermining community cohesion; and,

WHEREAS, While the Pittsburgh Land Reserve has been a forerunner in recycling abandoned land in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the spread of blighted conditions outpaces the capacity of the Land Reserve; and,

WHEREAS, Real estate abandonment and tax delinquency are highly correlated; 16.3% of Pittsburgh's real estate parcels city-wide are tax delinquent and 6% of all taxable parcels in 2009 (7932 parcels) were assumed abandoned; and,

WHEREAS, With the passage of the Pennsylvania Land Bank Act, Act 153-2012, 68 PA.C.S.A in October of 2012, Pennsylvania joined 18 other states by enabling the creation of a powerful tool known nationally as land banking, launching it into its third generation. Pittsburgh gained the ability to address our abandonment and tax delinquency problems to scale; and,

WHEREAS, In order to ensure that the land is a productive asset, and not a liability, the City of Pittsburgh must take advantage of all of the powers given to us in this new state law, and align and coordinate formerly fragmented and disjointed processes into one streamlined, efficient system; and,

WHEREAS, A municipal Land Bank would ensure equitable, transparent, and efficient operations by serving as a single entity to acquire, hold, and dispose of vacant property; and,

WHEREAS, A municipal Land Bank should ensure that communities affected by vacant land have substantial and meaningful involvement in its decisions relating to those communities, with this goal strongly informing the Land Bank's governance, struc...