State Rep. Lou Schmitt, R-79th District, (left) and staffers from the General Assembly were part of a group that toured downtown Altoona on Thursday to view blighted properties after a state Senate Urban Affairs & Housing Committee hearing at the Devorris Downtown Center. Mirror photo by William Kibler

Altoona Blair County Development Corp. CEO Steve McKnight said Thursday that blight is not just a drag on the quality of life in neighborhoods, but also an obstacle to economic development.

McKnight was one of those testifying at a state Senate Urban Affairs & Housing Committee hearing in Altoona.

Technology has transformed the economy so workers in many jobs have their choice of where to live, because “customers can be effectively served, and products produced and sold from essentially anywhere,” McKnight told the committee, convened by Chairwoman state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair.

While many workers settle in cities, some prefer smaller communities like those in Blair County “that offer a solid balance between work, life, family and friends,” McKnight said.

Blair County workers are aging, and many will be retiring in the near future, making it imperative to attract younger replacements, McKnight said.

Among community characteristics that “mobile” younger workers consider when choosing where to live are not only critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, water systems and broadband, plus schools, parks, public gathering places and trails — but also housing and the look of neighborhoods, McKnight said.

“What people see as they drive through our towns or walk our neighborhoods says something about who we are,” McKnight said. “A judgment is made about how we value and see our future.”

Whether the look of a neighborhood signals optimism or surrender helps determine whether prospective workers settle here or somewhere else, he said.

Workers today demand “high quality, walkable neighborhoods that offer a safe and vibrant living experience, with diverse housing choices and price points,” he said.

“Communities that deliver that win,” McKnight said. “Those with an older housing stock, broken sidewalks, dimly lit streets and generally neglected properties will not be competitive.”

While Blair County’s public spaces are generally inviting and well maintained, the housing stock here is generally old, built mostly before 1940, and much of it is in the “hands of landlords who live elsewhere, increasing the chance of neglect and disrepair,” McKnight said.

“Blight, whether it exists in the public or private realm, will hurt our chances of attracting people,” he said.

“(McKnight’s) testimony really hit home,” said Committee Vice Chairman state Sen. David Argall, R-Schuyl­kill. “We’re grappling with some of the same issues.”

In some cases, towns in his area have succeeded in encouraging development that created jobs, but many of those who fill those jobs live outside the towns and commute, he said.

It’s the blight in those towns that has discouraged them from living where the jobs are and keeping towns from realizing the full benefit of development, Argall said.

The key to remediating that problem is to continue to “stay on track” — to provide funding for municipalities to fight blight and to provide more legal tools, Argall said.

One of those tools is Act 90, which provides for aggressive blight enforcement, including denial of building permits, seizure of assets and criminal prosecution for those who flout code law repeatedly, blight consultant Winnie Branton said.

So far, the city has been using the threat of permit denial and asset seizure to encourage compliance, Branton said.

It is preparing for criminal prosecutions by working on getting city solicitor Dan Stants appointed as an assistant district attorney to take charge of serious code cases — an appointment that is still being finalized, Branton said.

“This new and innovative arrangement will give the city greater control and discretion over bringing criminal charges against negligent and irresponsible property owners,” Branton said.

Making laws — especially ones like Act 90 — to prevent and remediate blight requires striking a tricky balance between neighborhood maintenance and property rights, Argall said.

National stories about apparently overzealous law enforcement property seizures connected with the drug trade, but involving innocent parties, provide a cautionary tale, Argall agreed.

The General Assembly could help the cause in municipalities like Altoona by adding a requirement for prospective bidders at tax sales to preregister, giving the municipalities the opportunity to determine their eligibility to bid, Branton said. Bidders can be ineligible because of outstanding taxes, outstanding municipal utility bills, outstanding code violations or revoked landlord licenses, she said. Currently, municipalities are limited to filing post-sale petitions to prohibit transfers for such ineligible bidders, Branton said.

The General Assembly could also help the cause by making all three property taxing bodies — counties, municipalities and school districts — responsible for maintaining properties that have passed through tax sales to county repositories, Branton said. The counties used to be responsible, but Act 38, a 2018 amendment of the Real Estate Tax Sale Law, made owners responsible. That created a problem, because many of those properties are abandoned, so there are no owners to accept responsibility, Branton said.

Other issues cited by Branton were a lack of contractors in Altoona willing to participate in the city’s federally funded housing repair programs, income restrictions on program participants that exclude middle income people who can’t afford to make repairs and the high cost of lead paint and asbestos remediation. An interest-free loan program would help, she said.