Westmoreland County commissioners have approved the demolition of 16 more dilapidated properties scattered across a dozen municipalities, allocating up to $326,000 to tear down structures officials describe as rotting eyesores. The targeted buildings sit in East Huntingdon, East Vandergrift, Jeannette, Ligonier Township, Mt. Pleasant Township, Penn Township, Monessen, Sewickley, South Huntingdon, Sutersville, West Newton and Youngwood, and county officials expect the properties to be razed over the next nine months.
The demolitions are funded through a $15 fee tacked onto deed and mortgage filings, according to TribLIVE. That blight removal program dates back to 2016 and has now demolished 74 properties countywide, including a former restaurant building in downtown Greensburg that came down in 2021. Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Sean Kertes framed the stakes bluntly, saying the county cannot grow while properties are rotting.
A Second, Larger Program Funded by Federal Relief Money
Beyond the deed-fee program, Westmoreland County has run a separate, much larger blight removal effort since 2022, financed through federal COVID-relief funds. The county originally allocated $10.4 million to that second program, a sum that represented nearly 10% of its entire American Rescue Plan allocation. That money has covered demolition or rehabilitation work in Arnold, Greensburg, Jeannette, Monessen, New Kensington, Penn Borough and Vandergrift, with an initial target of addressing 500 structures.
Land Bank Executive Director Brian Lawrence said federal COVID-relief funds have financed the demolition of 331 structures so far. He has also warned that too few communities have the resources on their own to tackle blighted properties, and that a single blight-removal project could bankrupt some smaller municipalities without county help. Lawrence said another six properties could be added to the demolition list before the end of the year.
Money Is Getting Tighter as Federal Funds Wind Down
As of mid-July, Westmoreland County had $526,000 remaining for demolitions, and officials say roughly $700,000 could still pay for as many as 100 additional demolitions before the program's funding runs dry. The county blight removal program has money available to spend only through the end of 2027. Complicating matters, commissioners withdrew $1.6 million from the ARPA blight fund earlier to help balance the county's general budget, a move that has tightened the runway for future demolitions.
That fiscal squeeze reflects a broader challenge facing Westmoreland's blight strategy: the deed-recording fee, authorized under Pennsylvania's Act 152 of 2016, provides a steady, permanent revenue stream for smaller demolitions across all 65 municipalities in the county, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The much larger ARPA allocation, by contrast, allowed the county to run concentrated clearance campaigns in seven heavily industrial communities, but that federal money is temporary and set to disappear. State lawmakers made the deed fee itself permanent in November 2022 when they passed Act 149, stripping out the original 10-year sunset clause that would have ended county demolition fees in January 2027, according to the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
Land Bank Converts Vacant Lots Into New Development
The Westmoreland County Land Bank, established in December 2013 under state Act 153, works in tandem with the county Redevelopment Authority to acquire, manage and repurpose tax-delinquent and blighted real estate, per the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. Municipalities that want to participate must pay a one-time $5,000 fee, waive outstanding municipal tax liens on acquired properties, and return half of real estate taxes to the land bank for five years after redevelopment. Property sales generate roughly 75% of the land bank's operating revenue, and the agency had sold more than 170 acquired parcels for redevelopment between 2013 and late 2023, according to a TribLIVE report.
One tangible result of that model sits in East Vandergrift, where a dilapidated former elementary school acquired by the land bank was demolished and redeveloped into Morning Sun Senior Lofts, a $16 million affordable housing facility for residents 55 and older. Hoodline previously covered the county's ARPA-funded demolition push when it tore down the Fort Pitt Brewery tower in Jeannette, and more recently reported on a related state grant push that funneled millions into New Kensington for site preparation at the former Alcoa complex.
Why Officials Say the Work Matters
Regional economic research cited by the county's Department of Planning and Development found that vacant and blighted homes can reduce neighboring property values within 500 feet by as much as 3.6%, while municipal studies in the nearby Mon Valley estimated blight costs local communities more than $250 million in lost revenue and heightened police, fire and public works spending. Under the ARPA-funded program, Monessen has seen the highest concentration of removals, with 54 blighted structures razed by early 2024, followed by New Kensington with 23 and Jeannette with 19, according to the Mon Valley Independent.
Roughly 70% of Westmoreland County's housing stock was built before 1978, prompting county redevelopment officials to pair structural demolitions with $3.4 million in federal HUD grants for lead-based paint hazard mitigation and healthy home repairs. Officials also continue to promote educational efforts through the annual Blight and Revitalization Summit, which was themed “Revitalizing Main Street” this past May and trains local municipal officers, developers and nonprofits on tools for property acquisition and downtown restoration.
