Allentown, PA Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Chapter 406, Nuisance Abatement, adopted February 15, 2023 by Ordinance No. 15872, sets out who can report a suspected public nuisance and what happens next. Under § 406-3A and B, all reports go to the Department of Community and Economic Development, and reports "may be submitted by a member of the public; City employee; elected official; or appointed City official"; any City department that identifies a possible public nuisance in the normal course of its work must also submit a report through the Department's Director or designee.

Section 406-3C requires the Department to "establish a procedure for receiving, documenting, and maintaining reports" and to post that procedure, at a minimum, on the City of Allentown web page, with a copy also filed with the City Clerk for the online code database. Once a report comes in, § 406-3D requires the Department to investigate on a timely basis; the Director or a designee may enter the reported premises to examine it, and if an owner, agent, or tenant refuses entry, the Director must obtain an administrative search warrant from a Magisterial District Judge.

After investigating, § 406-3E requires the Department to determine both whether a public nuisance actually exists and, if so, whether it qualifies as an "emergent public nuisance," defined in § 406-2 as a condition severe enough to threaten personal injury, death, or substantial property loss and to justify immediate action without prior owner notice. Emergent nuisances move to the summary-abatement track in § 406-4, while nonemergent nuisances follow the notice-and-abatement procedure in § 406-5, which gives the owner 30 days to fix the problem before the City abates it at the owner's expense.