Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry The owner of this 7 Hinkle St. property in the City of Warren has been offered a chance to address the Redevelopment Authority before that group considers taking action to address the blight.

The owner of a problem property in the City of Warren is being offered a final chance to clean up his act.

The city Redevelopment Authority has invited the owner of 7 Hinkle St. to attend the group’s July 27 meeting and explain to the members what steps he plans to take to keep them from having to take action.

The property has been through the Blighted Property Review Committee and the Planning Commission.

“It’s been deteriorating for a few years now,” Zoning Enforcement Officer Scott Taylor said. “It’s gone through first and second blight, passed through the planning commission.”

He said the utilities are shut off and the city is having to provide property maintenance — sending someone from the Department of Public Works to mow “every 10 days to two weeks.”

“There was a year’s worth of garbage behind the house,” Taylor said. “DPW has abated that.”

There was some interest in purchasing the property, but the prospective buyer lost interest after seeing the amount of money owed at the property. “What was being uncovered for liens… was far more than the sale price,” Taylor said.

“I do not feel I’m going to have any abatement with that property,” he said. “I do not feel we’re going to have any movement with that property.”

City Planning Director Randy Rossey said the RDA typically waits for properties to show up on the repository list after several years of non-payment of property taxes before acting to purchase them and take any needed action to get them back on the tax rolls.

Warren County Tax Claim Bureau Director Phil Gilbert told the authority members that the 2019 taxes had been paid on the property.

RDA Member Mindy Saunders suggested the group invite the owner to the July meeting. Either he can speak with the committee about his plans or the group will have evidence that it made an effort to contact him without result.

LANDBANK

Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston addressed the authority regarding a proposed county landbank.

“What that landbank does is give the RDA additional powers to address blight,” Eggleston said. “Get involved in the tax sale process, get involved in tax claim.”

“A lot of time we have to wait until properties end up in repository,” he said. “This would allow the RDA to work with tax claim and get involved earlier.”

“The county has allocated $15,000 each year for three years as a seed fund,” Eggleston said.

“If the city RDA chooses to participate in the landbank, the city RDA would continue to operate as a private entity… and do the business that it has been doing,” Rossey said.

“Our goal is to work as transparently as possible with the city RDA,” Eggleston said. “We’re not interested in using city money to do county work. We want to work with the city. That’s part of our scope of work.”

He was asking the members to consider entering into an agreement with the county. “In order for us to operate in a municipality, they need to sign an intergovernmental cooperative agreement,” he said.