Times Observer file photo Pictured is the former Brick House located at 219 Liberty St. The property was again discussed by the city’s Planning Commission on Wednesday.

The long-term prospects for a prominent Liberty Street property were before the City of Warren’s Planning Commission on Wednesday morning,

The subject property is the former Brick House located at 219 Liberty St.

Code official Jessica Bee said the structure has been declared blighted twice by the city’s Blighted Property Review Committee. She said certifying those declarations was the role before the Planning Commission.

She told the commission that service requests to the city date back several years with complaints on the roof coming from an adjacent property owner back in 2017. That complaint, she said, identified “problems with the roof structure in the rear of the building that has now collapsed.”

Bee said the property sold at tax sale several years ago to a New York-based LLC. The city “let them know at the sale there were structural issues,” she said “They have since walked away completely from that property.”

The commission’s action on Wednesday to certify the declaration of blight “will allow the RDA (Redevelopment Authority) to take whatever appropriate action they feel is warranted to deal with the blighted conditions,” she explained.

City Planner Vince DeJoy said he is hopeful the city “can take possession” of the property and work with private development to find “someone that can take care of it.”

DeJoy said the city could invest an “enormous amount of money to make it warm, safe and dry” but would be left with nothing that’s of any value.

“We’re looking for the next development there, part of a bigger project,” he said.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE

DeJoy told the commission that invitations will be going out for a first public input meeting.

He explained that they have put together a “very diverse list” of community stakeholders. The process starts with an invitation-only survey and meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 29, at the Conewango Club.

DeJoy said that will be a “launching point to get a feeling” for the city’s priorities — good, bad and what needs improved.

“We really need to take these ideas and take them to the next step,” Commission chair Angie Dart said, to “help us move forward with that change we desperately need in this community.”