NEW CASTLE PARK Panel: Land is blighted

One official didn't vote because she disagreed with the term 'blighted.'
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- About 500 acres of land earmarked for the multimillion-dollar Millennium Park has been declared blighted by the county planning commission.
The designation was needed to pave the way for eminent domain proceedings that can be instituted if a private property owner refuses to sell.
Eminent domain is the right of government to take private property for other uses. It is usually a last-ditch effort by government to obtain property by offering fair compensation to the property owner.
The land, between Pa. Route 60 and Harbor Road, is being considered by a semiconductor company promising 1,200 jobs.
There are residential properties, small businesses and a sportsmen's club on the land.
Meets conditions
The county planning commission was permitted to declare the property blighted because it meets one or more of the conditions for that designation set by the by state, said James Gagliano, county planning director.
Among the reasons that apply to the property are that its use is economically or socially undesirable, there is inadequate planning in the area and there is a defective design or arrangement of buildings, he said.
The six landowners have been contacted and two sales agreements have already been signed, said Linda Nitch, director of the Lawrence County Economic Development Agency, the group handling the property negotiations.
Nitch said they are still negotiating with four other land owners and may have to use eminent domain on two of the properties. She said negotiations with the two other owners will likely result in sales agreements.
Planning commission chairwoman Janet Verone abstained from voting on the matter.
Verone said she agreed with the idea of taking the property for a better use, but objected to the term "blighted." Verone said she believes the term connotes an overpopulated, urban area, not a rural setting like the one in Neshannock Township.
The business park that has been promised $15 million by Gov. Ed Rendell for water and sewer lines and another $15 million from local municipalities and Lawrence County.
Lawrence County commissioners and the county redevelopment authority must also designate the property blighted before the eminent domain process can start.