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Ordinance endorses land bank effort

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County will soon advertise an ordinance endorsing an Altoona-led effort to set up a land bank aimed at reducing blight and encouraging development.

An earlier version of the proposed ordinance generated questions about coverage of county-assigned costs that are typically paid when a property is purchased from the county’s tax claim bureau.

Those costs — typically about $2,000 — will mostly be covered by the land bank that based on developing efforts will be operated by the Altoona Re­development Authority.

As spelled out in the proposed ordinance that commissioners agreed Tuesday to advertise, the land bank is to pay “a purchase price” reflecting the city’s and school district’s portions of the county-assigned costs associated with holding the property. Those portions will be computed based on the total real estate millage levied by the city, school district and county.

“In the end, the dollars didn’t change,” solicitor Nathan Karn said Tuesday after the commissioners meeting.

What changed is that the proposed ordinance makes the land bank responsible for covering costs that could have fallen to the county’s tax claim bureau to capture from delinquent tax payments it routinely collects and forwards to the city and school district.

Altoona Mayor Matt Pacifico, a primary advocate for creating the proposed land bank, attended Tuesday’s commissioners meeting where he secured approval from commissioners Bruce Erb and Terry Tomassetti to advertise the proposed ordinance. Com­missioner Ted Beam Jr. was absent.

The city will cover the advertising costs, Pacifico said.

Commissioners presented no additional questions or engaged in any discussion on the topic.

“We worked out some details,” Erb said.

It’s not a countywide effort, and the proposed ordinance, as written, applies only to properties inside the city. Non-Altoona properties in the hands of the county’s tax claim bureau will not be affected.

The proposed ordinance also obligates the county, along with the city and the school district, to give 50 percent of the property’s real estate tax payments to the land bank — if and when it is able to restore the property to taxable use. That obligation ends after five years.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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