City Council to hold special meeting on land bank, land reuse policies

Pittsburgh City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday afternoon about a stalled proposal to establish more detailed procedures for transferring properties owned by the city to its land bank, as well as other mechanisms the city has to get properties back on the tax rolls.

Negotiations have deadlocked for more than a year on a proposal to amend the so-called “tri-party agreement,” which organizes the relationships among the city, Urban Redevelopment Authority and land bank, to establish a uniform process for land transfers. Under the proposal, the land bank would first send a list of properties it’d like to acquire to the city planning and finance departments for approval. The land bank’s board and City Council then would both have to sign off on moving the properties.

The issue is more political than legal, as the city code already authorizes transfers to Pittsburgh Land Bank with approval from City Council. Council held two private briefings on the proposed amendment, one in December and another in April.

Councilor Deb Gross, D-Lawrenceville, is organizing the meeting, known formally as a post-agenda. Her invited guests are Krysia Kubiak, the city’s top lawyer; Jennifer Gula, the city treasurer and finance director; and Kyle Chintalapalli, the city’s top economic development official and URA board chair.

A spokesperson for Gross did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment about why no staff members from the URA or land bank were invited to speak.

Ricky Burgess, who chairs the land bank board and also represents parts of the East End on City Council, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the URA or land bank.

Kendall Pelling, the executive director of Rising Tide Partners, told the Union Progress that the three invited guests “probably have the most power over how the land bank operates, and if and when it operates.” Rising Tide is involved in litigation against the city about its care for vacant properties, and he urged passage of the land bank proposal before council.

“They just need to authorize this part of the government to work the way it’s designed to,” he said.

Gross told the Union Progress in a wide-ranging interview last month that the city needs to take action on the thousands of properties it owns. She noted there are a variety of ways they can get off the city’s books — through the land bank, which allows for community input; a treasurer’s sale, which rewards the highest bidder; and other means.

“I think City Council, and all the partners at the table and the public, need a deeper understanding of which tool is best for which piece of property,” she said.

Gross added that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a “big unified strategy” for land reuse in the city, but it’s important to have what she described as a “common understanding.”

“You don’t have to have a strategy for all 14,000 properties before you start on the first one. As long as we have a common understanding of what the tools and criteria are — maybe that’s a unified strategy, I don’t really think so,” she said. “It’s just at least some common ground understanding that, again, is plain and easy for everyone, including members of the public, to understand and certainly our neighborhood groups who have been working so hard and struggling with these issues for so long. And then we should just get started.”

Pittsburgh’s land bank was launched in 2014 with the vision of acquiring vacant properties and clearing them of tax lien liabilities to get them back on the open market for redevelopment. It has only taken hold of a few properties since its founding, has faced constant turnover in leadership, and has yet to reach an agreement with the county, city and city school district on how to remove tax liabilities from properties. The land bank has yet to spend $7 million in federal COVID-19 funding.

The agency completed its first property sale late last month. The Mount Washington Community Development Corp. now owns 6 Boggs Ave., once home to the J. Catherine Newton Insurance Agency, and will redevelop the property. The first-floor commercial space will host the Washington Heights Ecumenical Food Bank, with an apartment above and basement space for community organizations.