The city Redevelopment Authority on Friday voted to take a blighted house on the 1800 block of Fifth Avenue by eminent domain so that the house can be rehabilitated, rather than razed.

The authority has the legal power to take the property under the state’s Urban Redevelopment Law, based on the city’s newly created Blighted Property Review Committee having declared the property blighted.

It’s the first property to be approved for taking in this manner by the authority as part of an initiative that will allow for rehabilitation of blighted homes, even when the owner can’t be found or is uncooperative.

The authority has completed rehabilitation of one house and has begun work on two others in its rehab-rather-than-raze initiative, but those properties were obtained with the cooperation of the owners.

The taking of the Fifth Avenue property will be complete when authority solicitor Patrick Fanelli files the declaration of taking in Blair County Court in January, Fanelli said.

The brick house has been vacant for several years, but seems to be in decent shape, on the exterior at least, and so was judged fit for rehabilitation, officials said.

City code officials have made repeated efforts to contact the owner, without success, according to city Blight Manager Josh Kaufman and ARROW Solutions consultant Don Rossman.

The property was subject to the county’s upset sale for nonpayment of taxes, with all liens still valid, and went unsold; then was to be subject to the judicial sale, where most liens are voided — but the owner rescued the property from judicial sale by paying enough of those taxes, officials said.

That resurfacing of the owner didn’t enable the city to make contact, officials said.

The house is apparently part of a property management firm’s large portfolio and “it’s just a drop in the bucket for them,” Rossman said.

While the firm cared enough to keep the property from judicial sale, to maintain it in the portfolio, it didn’t care enough to otherwise “do anything with it,” according to Rossman.

The owner has had plenty of notice about the issues — generally 30 days each for notices of violations and citations from the codes office and also for the BPRC’s finding of blight, followed by the Altoona Planning Commission’s confirmation of blight, officials said.

The authority’s approval of the declaration of taking doesn’t generate a formal notice, Fanelli said.

If the owner should nevertheless come forward before Fanelli files the declaration of taking in court, the owner would “need to address all of the problems with the property in order to prevent us from filing” that declaration, Fanelli stated in a text after the meeting.

The owner will get notice of the filing, however, Fanelli said.

At that point, “their options relating to keeping ownership of the property are pretty much gone,” he said.

The owner is entitled to fair market value compensation, however, Fanelli said.

It’s likely that the few thousand dollars worth of liens on the property will wipe out most or all of that value, he said.

The owner could challenge any compensation offered, which would lead to a board of view hearing, potentially with dueling appraisals, he said.

If the owner doesn’t make an appearance, the authority would pay the compensation money to the court for the court to hold, according to Fanelli.

Once the authority has possession of the property, it is likely to evaluate the house and float a request for proposals to obtain a builder willing to renovate.

The authority has been open to adding monetary subsidies to entice development interest, which would be added to the value of the legal preparation work that the authority has been performing.

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