Pittsburgh leaders divided over proposal to limit discounted land sales

Some Pittsburgh leaders on Wednesday voiced concerns that a proposal to ban landlords from purchasing properties at a discounted rate through the city’s Side Yard Sale Program could inadvertently lead to blight.

Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, sponsored legislation that would limit the Side Yard Sale Program — which allows property owners to purchase vacant adjacent properties owned by the city for $200 — to neighboring homeowners.

Currently, anyone who owns an abutting property can buy empty city-owned lots that are no larger than 5,000 square feet through the program. There are deed restrictions on the land that bar people from developing properties purchased through the Side Yard Sale Program, but people can use the lands to expand their yards, plant gardens, install swimming pools or build decks, Finance Director Jennifer Gula said.

Council members were split during their Wednesday meeting about the proposed change to the program, which would bar landlords from using the program’s discounted rate. Landlords could still purchase land through the city at full cost.

“I think that people that do live next door to an abandoned lot should have more consideration [than] a landlord that owns or doesn’t live there, or a speculator from another state,” Gula said.

Councilman Bobby Wilson, D-North Side, said he felt it was a win for everyone to get the vacant lots available through the Side Yard Sale Program back on the tax roll, whether the buyer was a homeowner or a landlord. The city would no longer have to absorb the cost of maintaining the property, and property owners — whether landlords or adjacent homeowners — could put the property to better use and pay taxes for it, he said.

“I’m not seeing why that would be good for Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers,” Wilson said of the measure to restrict access to the program for non-homeowners.

Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, said there’s an “unbelievable amount of vacant land” in his district. He frequently fields calls from nearby residents who are upset about the way empty city-owned land becomes an eyesore.

“Our land care program is not efficient,” he said. “I want to see these properties move to someone.”

Property owners who buy the land and don’t maintain it, he said, could be taken to court and held accountable. Leaving properties in the city’s inventory, he said, likely means more blight.

Gross, however, said the program was initially designed for homeowners to expand their own properties. She criticized the current practice of allowing landlords and investors to gobble up land at a price so low that the city loses money on every side yard sale.

“I think this is really just about clarifying the original intent of the Side Yard (Sale) Program,” Council President R. Daniel Lavelle told colleagues.

Council members voted to hold the legislation for two weeks before discussing it further and taking a preliminary vote.