Redevelopment Authority of the City of Erie: votes at a glance from March 10 meeting

The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Erie voted on several routine and programmatic items at its March 10, 2025 meeting, approving agenda and minutes, accepting a finance report pending audit, authorizing blighted-property acquisition for five parcels, approving a $70,000 grant application to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the East Bayfront Greenway Trail, authorizing staff to sign a Neighborly software agreement, and reallocating $90,000 in ARPA funds from 560 East Fifth Street to 431 Ash Street.

Why it matters: the votes move forward the authority’s redevelopment and housing programs: the blighted-property resolution begins condemnation procedures on five parcels requested by the Erie Land Bank; the DCNR grant application pursues state funding for East Bayfront park development; software procurement aims to replace several legacy systems used to manage loans, inspections and client portals; and the ARPA reallocation keeps a rehabilitation project funded and on schedule.

Key outcomes (motions and results):

- Approve agenda — Motion carried. (Procedural.)

- Approve minutes from Feb. 10, 2025 — Motion carried. (Procedural.)

- Approve finance report (pending audit) — Motion carried. The board approved the finance report as presented and noted outstanding ARPA reimbursement and a pending Erie Land Bank reimbursement were still unresolved in the period ending February; the approval was explicitly “pending audit.”

- Resolution: authorize acquisition (blighted property) of five parcels — Motion carried. The board approved a resolution to accept five properties identified by the Erie Land Bank for blight designation and to begin condemnation/eminent-domain steps requested by the Land Bank. The parcels include 1012 West 19th Street and 1014 West 19th Street (adjoining industrial parcels connected by a municipal alley) and three distressed residential parcels (addresses not specified in the motion text read at the meeting). The solicitor advised that the eminent-domain process includes a just-compensation filing and that the affected party would have one year from filing to seek review under the statutorily provided process.

- Resolution: DCNR grant application, East Bayfront Greenway Trail (Phase 1) — Motion carried. The board authorized submission of a $70,000 grant application to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to support Phase 1 park development and authorized the executive director and April Decker to execute grant documents.

- Motion: enter agreement with Neighborly software and authorize executive director to sign — Motion carried. The board authorized the executive director to execute the Neighborly implementation and subscription agreement (one-time implementation fee plus annual subscription). Staff explained Neighborly would replace three existing systems used for mortgages, estimating, and a client portal, and staff will aim to complete implementation in time to extract data from the current mortgage software before contract expiration.

- Motion: reallocate $90,000 in ARPA funding from 560 East Fifth Street to 431 Ash Street — Motion carried. The board approved moving previously authorized ARPA funds (originally allocated for rehabilitation at 560 East Fifth Street) to 431 Ash Street; staff said this is a like-for-like reallocation and will not reduce unit production for the Race New Production program.

All motions recorded as “carried” at the meeting; individual roll-call vote tallies and member-by-member votes were not read aloud for procedural items and were not recorded in the available transcript beyond the verbal “Aye” confirmations. The meeting adjourned by unanimous voice vote.