How will Chester Fight Blight?

About a month after I posted this video last July the buidling was demolished. Slowly buildings like these are coming down all around town. Hopefully, this new law will speed things up.

I’ll admit that I was confused about what the first reading of the Neighborhood Blight Reclamation and Revitalization Act in Chester City Council meant. 

But, I didn’t give up and thanks to this week’s Special Report on The Delinquency Crisis, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I now have a better understanding of what’s going on.

In short, Pa Senate Bill 900 - Act 90, the Neighborhood Blight Reclamation and Revitalization Act was signed into law on October 2010 and effective April 2011.

The way I’m understanding this is that this state law gives local government a way to fight blight, but it’s still up to the local government to go after the bad guys and enforce the law as they see fit. 

Although the law is in place, much of the heavy lifting still falls on local government to implement the law and make it work.

The Inquirer says...As drafted, the new legislation would:

• Require cities to begin foreclosure proceedings on tax-delinquent properties 12 months after they fall into arrears.
• Give municipalities authority to create public land banks, with the power to acquire tax-delinquent properties ahead of private investors.
• Make it easier and less costly for cities and counties to take properties to sheriff’s sale.
• Tighten notification requirements so owners of tax-delinquent properties are given many opportunities to pay up before their land is auctioned.
• Require hardship agreements and payment plans to be made available for low-income owner-occupants.
• Provide for a clean title at the end of the process, which makes the properties easier to insure and more appealing to buyers who are not conversant with titling procedures.

The legislation - which is likely to change and which faces serious political hurdles - is modeled on reformed tax-delinquency systems in use in cities as diverse as New York; Flint, Mich.; and Atlanta. The goal, Ross said, is to create an easy-to-understand system capable of quickly processing large numbers of delinquent properties and getting them back on the tax rolls.

Although the law would apply to all Pennsylvania municipalities, its impact would be most profound in Philadelphia, as it would not tolerate the city's system that has allowed many delinquent property owners to escape foreclosure indefinitely.

The Chester Spirit says THIS

The Daily Time says THIS

The Philadelphia Inquirer says THIS

An easy to understand source to explain this bill is PennLive.com. Click HERE