How does a property become blighted?

The Warren County Commissioners and Council of Governments (GOG) together established the blighted property review process in 2009.

Blighted properties, according to the process literature, “pose a safety threat and public nuisance, and their blighted effect diminishes the value of nearby property.”

Blighted conditions can spread from building to building, effectively “infecting” entire swaths of a neighborhood, the process states. Buildings considered blighted are likely to remain abandoned and further deteriorate if they are not demolished or rehabilitated.

The first criteria for a property to be considered blighted is that it be abandoned.

Abandoned properties are identified, and arrangements are made, with the help of local government to either demolish or rehabilitate them in order to return them to “productive use to improve both the local economy and the quality of life for neighbors.”

The blight review process was modeled after that of the City of Warren, which successfully saw the removal of many blighted properties from its list after being implemented, the county review process states. The ordinance was adopted by the municipalities of the county in order to clearly establish the steps by which properties are declared blighted and dealt with outside the city.

Conditions of blight are varied, but include, among other things: being a public nuisance according to common law or local housing, building, plumbing, fire, and related codes; being an attractive nuisance to children; being dilapidated, unsafe, vermin-infested, or lacking facilities and equipment required by municipality housing codes, or designated unsafe for human habitation; being a fire hazard or otherwise dangerous to the safety of persons or property; being without utilities such as plumbing, heating, sewerage and others, or having a delinquent tax record for two or more years.

Storage buildings in rural and remote areas, vacant homes and buildings, and other structures can be declared blighted. “Just because a building doesn’t look pretty doesn’t mean it’s blighted,” literature on the review process states.

Municipalities are not permitted to submit any occupied property to the BPRC. In the case of properties that are occupied but unsafe, dilapidated, or attractive nuisances to children should be contacted by the municipality in which it sits and “efforts should be made to assist the occupants to find livable conditions elsewhere and then proceed,” blighted property process literature states.

Elected municipal officials — township supervisors or borough mayors and council members — are the only people able to declare a vacant or abandoned property blighted.

Property owners are notified by certified mail that their property is under consideration for blight. The initial declarations are made at the regular business meetings of individual municipalities, and clearly identify the conditions of the property in violation of the ordinance, with a resolution required to be passed for each property. Property owners are given a specific amount of time in which they are to address the identified conditions. Municipalities decide which properties are forwarded to the Warren County Blighted Property Review Committee.

Municipalities are financially responsible for legally notifying property owners when a property has been declared blighted.

Once a municipality has declared a property blighted it is forwarded to the Warren County Blighted Property Review Committee. Members of this committee are members of the Council of Government. The committee reviews each property to ensure that the steps of the process have been, and continue to be, carried out appropriately. Property owners are invited to present their plans for the property during a committee meeting, before the committee itself. If the property is considered blighted by the BPRC, documentation is forwarded to the Warren County Planning Commission. The BPRC screens for zoning and land use issues. If the Planning Commission agrees with the BPRC’s declaration of blight, the property is then referred to the Warren County Redevelopment Authority.

The county RDA is the final step in the county’s blighted property review process. Each blighted property is reviewed for accuracy and the provision of an appeal process for property owners. The RDA makes arrangements to take ownership of blighted properties through direct purchase from owners. Members of the RDA then determine whether the property needs to be demolished or rehabilitated. The RDA has access to state and federal redevelopment funding options that municipalities cannot take advantage of.

The RDA is responsible for settling any municipal liens, judgments, or back taxes against any property taken by eminent domain. The RDA is also responsible for working directly with owners to make judgments for demolitions of property handled through the blighted property review process if a suit is filed by property owners.

While the taking of property by eminent domain by the RDA is rare, the process literature states, “the property owners will receive fair market value plus any related expenses such as moving costs.”