The Local Government Commission of Pennsylvania General Assembly, a bicameral and bipartisan legislative agency released a new report titled “Property Maintenance Code Enforcement Report”
Contributions to the report came from
- Pennsylvania Statewide Blight Task Force
- Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs
- Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors
- Pennsylvania Municipal League
- National Conference of State Legislatures
The conclusions drawn include
- Over ¾ of municipalities have not considered intergovernmental agreements for property
maintenance code enforcement. - Almost 70% of municipalities issue 50 or less property maintenance violation citations, on
average, per year. - In identifying both major obstacles to property maintenance enforcement and contributors
to blight, non-responsive, absent, and/or negligent property owners and landlords were the
highest rank factor. - Nearly all municipal respondents (93%) characterize their community’s degree of blight as
either low or moderate, but only 28% agree or strongly agree that their capacity to combat
blight is sufficient. - Half of property owners and developers disagreed or strongly disagreed that property
maintenance code expectations are clearly communicated by the municipality, with less than
a quarter (24%) rating the consistency across municipalities in property maintenance code
expectations and standards as consistent. - Over ¾ of property owners (78%) said that property maintenance code enforcement factors
either somewhat or strongly into their future planning and development strategies.
To view the report in its entirety, please click here
To view a related media article, please click here.