Altoona’s Blighted Property Review Committee is in place again.

After a hiatus of 17 years, City Council has appointed the five members for a new committee, ratifying nominations made by Mayor Matt Pacifico at council’s most recent meeting.

Council reconstituted the committee because BPRC approval is needed for the city’s newly aggressive Redevelopment Authority to take blighted properties by eminent domain, when owners have died, are uncooperative or can’t be reached — and when those properties are at risk of deteriorating to the point where renovation is impractical.

Council and the authority have been trying to increase the percentage of blighted properties that are rehabilitated, so they can be restored to the tax rolls.

The committee will work with city staff in dealing with blighted properties, sorting those that can be renovated from those that need to be razed, officials said.

State law requires that BPRCs consist of one City Council member, one Redevelopment Authority member, one Planning Commission member and two other residents.

Pacifico nominated and council ratified Councilman Dave Butterbaugh; authority member Allen Thompson (whose name the authority board put forward); Planning Commission member Drew Brennan; and residents Matt Zupon, a banker; and Devon Henninger, a courier.

Both the resident nominees noted “Young Republican” membership on their Talent Bank applications.

Butterbaugh was a member of the committee (known then as the Blighted Property Review Board) before it went dormant.

It went dormant after the city ended its policy of acquiring blighted properties prior to demolishing the buildings on them.

Instead, the city continued with those demolitions under its municipal police power to protect residents’ health, safety and welfare from the deleterious effects of blight, based on the International Property Maintenance Code.

The city changed from acquisition followed by demolition to demolition without acquisition after the Department of Housing and Urban Development ruled that the city wasn’t permitted to indefinitely use Community Development Block Grant money to maintain the lots that remained in its possession after demolition.

Councilman Ron Beatty dissented on the vote for Henninger.

It’s nothing personal, Beatty said.

But he would have preferred that Pacifico nominate another applicant for the city’s talent bank who flips houses, because the knowledge required for that work would be useful on the committee, Beatty said.

But it also might create a conflict of interest, Pacifico said, explaining why he hesitated to nominate that individual.

Moreover, staff will supply the information the board needs to make a judgment on whether a house can be saved or needs to be demolished, according to Pacifico.

The committee should have been in place months ago, and would have been, if Pacifico had been more aggressive in recruiting the residential candidates, according to Beatty.

He was making calls, but the city often struggles to find residents interested in virtually all its authorities, boards, commissions and committees, the mayor said.

“I was trying to find people who would be good for this,” he said.

Both the residents he chose are enthusiastic about their new roles, the mayor said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.