This Week’s Top Agenda Items

• Master plan for new emergency services training center proceeding
• Land Bank looks to take abandoned homes after three years of delinquent tax payments

Master plan for new emergency services training center proceeding ★ ★

Following weeks of public comment, City Council is poised to spend $1.8 million on a master plan to potentially build an $86 million public safety training facility in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood.

During a meeting with city council, Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said the “master plan” is a feasibility study of the 168-acre property for the potential campus, such as looking at existing utility lines and building conditions. It is not a building plan. The deadline for the master plan is May 2026. If it is not completed by then, the property will revert to the federal government.

Additionally, the city can’t use the property for anything other than what it originally requested. The application requesting the former VA site from the Department of Justice for a public safety training campus in 2017 is now a binding agreement with the federal government. However, the city can still change what it includes under the umbrella of public safety, including co-response social workers and violence prevention groups, Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said.

Pawlak said the proposed contract with the engineering firm Henningson Durham & Richardson does not allow the city to use the firm’s business team that provides surveillance and counter-operation measures, such as targeted social media campaigns, to sway public opinion.

Currently, public safety training is spread out across and outside of the city. Schmidt said, between all public safety departments, the city spends over $500,000 on facility rentals and leases.

The legislation, which was first introduced in June, was amended to include what the campus can and cannot be used for at the request of Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park. The 14 approved facilities include a fire burn tower, training classrooms, emergency vehicle storage and an indoor firing range. The property cannot be used for training or coordination with federal law enforcement, replication of urban warfare, or training officers to navigate the city as an occupying force.

The legislation also allows for the public to access parts of the campus such as the firing range, classrooms, and fitness or athletic facilities.

Any future additional funding, planning, or construction, will be subject to a public hearing prior to council vote.

Land Bank looks to take abandoned homes after three years of delinquent tax payments ★ ★

After informally working together to try to move tax-delinquent properties back onto the tax rolls, the city has put together an agreement with the land bank, the county and school district.

Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said the agreement will secure the full participation of the school district and county in clearing old tax liens on properties owned by, or intended for, the Pittsburgh Land Bank.

The agreement allows the land bank to acquire property through sheriff’s sales, which it can trigger after private property is tax delinquent for just three years. These sales are specific to the land bank—other entities cannot bid at them.

Typically, tax-delinquent private properties in Pittsburgh linger until someone requests a treasurer’s sale. The cumbersome, years-long process has led to thousands of abandoned, blighted properties across the city.

Land Bank Director Sally Stadelman said the expedited process will allow the land bank to “relieve the residents that live around that property, and we can ensure that it will take less funding to either make it an affordable home or to sell it to a new owner.”

State law allows land banks to essentially erase liens, making it easier to sell otherwise undesirable properties. They are also able to more quickly clear titles. Stadelman said they’ve been able to clear 90 properties through the existing relationship with the taxing bodies.

Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park said she was worried about the trust the city was placing in the land bank to not remove tax-delinquent residents from their homes. “Our eyes are going to be on you,” she said. “This is your responsibility that we’re giving you.”

Stadelman said the land bank would confirm that properties had also been abandoned during the tax-delinquent years ahead of requesting a property be auctioned at sheriff’s sale.

Under the new agreement, the land bank will also receive 50% of taxes generated on properties it sells for five years. After five years, 100% of taxes will go to the taxing bodies.

Stadelman said that the taxes would not be enough to sustain the cost of the land bank. It will reach a funding shortfall in 2026.

Council Member Bobby Wilson of Spring Hill, who chairs the land bank board, said, “This really helps give us clear eyes as to what’s needed to fund the land bank.”