House passes Salisbury bill to help communities fight blight
Would give municipalities more tools to redevelop abandoned, blighted properties
Rep. Abigail Salisbury April 23, 2025 | 4:04 PM
HARRISBURG, April 23 – Pennsylvania communities are one step closer to having a powerful new tool to fight blight after the state House today passed Rep. Abigail Salisbury’s bill that would make it easier for land banks to acquire abandoned properties.
Salisbury, D-Allegheny, said she introduced H.B. 743 – which would allow a municipality to designate a blighted or abandoned property for acquisition by a land bank – to address a longstanding issue that frustrates residents and small businesses and poses economic problems for municipalities.
“When a property owner abandons or severely neglects their property over the years, the entire community pays the price – in higher crime, health and safety hazards, lower property values and the exodus of small businesses and residents,” Salisbury said. “It’s an issue that has frustrated residents, business owners and local officials for decades, but municipalities have had their hands tied.
“One way we can attack the problem is by giving communities new tools to deal with properties that have a long history of safety or code violations. By allowing local governments to designate these properties for acquisition by land banks, we can free up these blighted lots for productive use – for parks and green spaces, for construction of affordable housing, for small businesses – for all the beneficial uses that make communities thrive.”
Salisbury said that under her legislation, municipalities would be allowed to designate properties for acquisition but not be required to do so, and that properties would be subject to acquisition only after at least five years of neglect and repeated warnings to the property owner to remediate the property. Property owners would be entitled to an appeal.
The legislation also would require the land bank to compensate the owner for the appraised value of the property minus any fines, liens or remediation costs.
The bill now heads to the state Senate.
Salisbury introduced a similar version of the bill in 2023. It passed the House in June of that year before stalling in the state Senate.