Bethlehem, PA Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Article 149 of the Codified Ordinances lets City officials and departments report a possibly blighted property to the Planning Commission, which recommends whether the property appears blighted and shares that recommendation with the seven-member Blighted Property Review Committee (149.03, 149.04(a)). The Committee includes at least one City Council member, a Redevelopment Authority board representative, a mayoral appointee, and a Planning Commission representative, serving staggered four-year terms without compensation. Only vacant property can be certified as blighted; "blighted," "abandoned," and "vacant" property are defined by reference to 35 P.S. § 1712.1(c), (c)(9) and (e)(1) (149.01).

If the Committee finds blight, it must serve an Order and Notice by posting a copy at the property and by hand delivery or mail requiring a signed receipt, stating the blight determination, the deadline to eliminate the conditions, and that failure to do so may subject the property to condemnation under the Urban Redevelopment Law (149.04(b), (c)). The Order and Notice counts as an adjudication under the Local Agency Law, giving the owner 30 days to appeal to the court of common pleas of the county where the property sits, under 2 Pa.C.S. § 752 and 42 Pa.C.S. § 5571(b) (149.04(b)(4)).

If the appeal period lapses without an appeal, or an appeal is resolved against the owner and the conditions still are not fixed, the property is deemed certified as blighted without further proceedings (149.04(d)). Once certified, the Redevelopment Authority may acquire the property by purchase, gift, bequest, or eminent domain, inside or outside a certified redevelopment area, and may hold, clear, manage, or dispose of it for residential, commercial, or industrial reuse, without preparing a full redevelopment area plan as long as the Planning Commission already found the proposed reuse consistent with the comprehensive plan (149.05(a), (b)).

Eminent domain proceeds under the 1964 Eminent Domain Code, and disposition inside a redevelopment area follows a redevelopment contract under 35 P.S. § 1712.1 (149.05(c), (d)). Article 149 was repealed and re-enacted in its entirety by Ordinance 2016-24, passed September 6, 2016.