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County holds first reading on ordinance to create $15 demolition fee for blighted properties
Summary
At a Lackawanna County commissioners meeting in Musick, commissioners held the first reading of Ordinance 299 to authorize a $15 fee on recorded deeds and mortgages to create a county demolition fund administered by the county land bank; a second reading and vote is scheduled for Aug. 20.
Lackawanna County commissioners held a first reading of Ordinance 299 on a proposal to establish a county demolition fund financed by a $15 fee on each deed and mortgage recorded in the county.
County staff said the fee — authorized by the amendment to Act 87 of 1982 under Act 152 of 2016 — would be collected by the Lackawanna County Recorder of Deeds, deposited into a dedicated fund managed by the Lackawanna County Land Bank and used exclusively for demolition of blighted properties. The ordinance text set an effective implementation date of Dec. 1, 2025, not less than 90 days after final adoption.
"This is another step forward in our continued effort to revitalize each community throughout Lackawanna County," a county commissioner said during the discussion, noting the fund would provide a targeted way to remove dilapidated structures that depress property values and can be magnets for crime. Kristin Magnotta, the county's director of economic development and planning, told commissioners that, as of Dec. 3, 2024, 26 other Pennsylvania counties had implemented similar demolition funds and that applying 2024 deed and mortgage volumes to a $15 fee would have yielded about $174,105.
Magnotta said boroughs, townships and municipalities will be able to apply to the land bank for demolition funding and that the county is developing an application process to be released in the coming weeks. She also said the county does not intend to place new liens on properties addressed through the program; instead, properties cleared would become land bank inventory and could be sold.
Because the ordinance was presented as a first reading, no final vote was taken at this meeting. County staff and commissioners set a second reading and a final vote for the commissioners' Aug. 20 meeting at the County Government Center.
If adopted as drafted, the ordinance directs the recorder of deeds to collect the flat $15 fee on each recorded deed or mortgage and to have the treasurer deposit proceeds into a designated Lackawanna County Demolition Fund; the Land Bank would administer disbursements for demolition projects. The ordinance cites Act 87 of 1982 as amended by Act 152 of 2016 as the statutory authorization.
The board did not adopt the ordinance at this session; commissioners will vote on final adoption at the Aug. 20 meeting.
