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HOLLIDAYSBURG – Blair County has become the last of three local governments to approve a tax-break zone for the site of the former Allegheny No. 1 Elementary School.
Commissioners Diane Meling and Ted Beam Jr. voted Tuesday to approve the proposed Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Zone for the site. If approved by the state, the LERTA designation will provide five years of incremental real estate tax breaks relevant to site improvements.
The Hollidaysburg Area School Board voted May 13 in favor of the same designation, and Allegheny Township supervisors approved it May 14.
The Altoona-Blair County Development Corp., in April, suggested the LERTA designation as a way to help the Allegheny No. 1 Limited Liability Corp. move forward with plans to turn the former school into housing for senior citizens.
Developer Drew Swope also told commissioners in April that his group is interested in trying to market a portion of the site’s grounds for additional development. Since buying the property in 2012, he said developers have spent $1 million to gut the building and remove asbestos while observing flood plain restrictions.
Commissioners agreed Tuesday to support the site’s entry into the LERTA program.
“It entices people to fix up buildings rather than just let them remain vacant,” Beam said.
Meling said the LERTA program is also beneficial because it affects future real estate taxes, with the expectation that those taxes will go up because of property improvements. The tax breaks are applied to improvements only, decreasing each year by 20 percent, thereby reaching a fully taxable status after five years.
While the LERTA program is typically associated with and applied to blighted properties, it is also available for economically undesirable land, ABCD Corp. Vice President Pat Miller explained in April to commissioners. ABCD used that same criteria to pursue and establish a LERTA zone for construction of Convention Center Commons, the commercial complex under construction on the hillside across from the Blair County Convention Center.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.