Community Development

Lead Paint Hazard and Healthy Homes Program

The new Lead Safe Westmoreland program is up and running, and homeowners, rental-property owners and tenants are encouraged to apply for assistance with the remediation of lead-based paint and home-related health and safety hazards in eligible households.

Funded by HUD via both a $3 million Lead Hazard Reduction Grant and a supplemental $400,00 Healthy Homes grant, this program will improve the lives of children and families by identifying and mitigating lead and health hazards in owner-occupied and privately owned eligible residential homes. For an application for assistance or to review program guidelines, click here.

Applicants must meet the following program requirements:

The home was built before 1978.
The household income limit is at or below 80 percent of the county’s area median income.
A child under the age of 6 years must reside or spend a significant amount of time in the home, or a pregnant woman must reside in the home.

Across the U.S., roughly 3.6 million families with young children live in homes contaminated with lead-based paint hazards. Exposure to lead — especially in children under the age of 6 — can cause serious health issues, including behavioral problems, organ damage, learning deficiencies, speech and language difficulties and, in rare cases, seizures, coma or death. Children of low-income families that live in older (pre-1978) un-assisted housing face the greatest risk of lead poisoning. It's estimated that 70 percent of Westmoreland County’s housing stock was built prior to 1978, so the need for education, reduction and prevention of lead-based paint hazards is critical.

For more information, call Londe Dandar at 724-830-3366.

HUD approves 2022 Annual Action Plan

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has accepted Westmoreland County’s Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Action Plan, which consists of 16 Community Development Block Grant projects with a total funding of approximately $2.7 million. Projects include public services, countywide demolition, emergency rehabilitation, and infrastructure improvements that include street reconstruction, water-line improvements and upgrades for stormwater facilities.

Additionally, more than $1 million of HOME Investment Partnerships funding has been allocated to affordable housing projects, including tenant-based rental assistance and the construction of a new senior rental apartment complex. Also awarded: $330,000 in Emergency Solutions Grant funds that will be used for a variety of homeless-prevention activities, in addition to assisting the county’s emergency homeless shelters with shelter operations and services.

Union Mission Emergency Shelter Expansion

Westmoreland County has entered into an agreement with Homes Build Hope, Inc. for the construction of a long-term emergency shelter that will provide housing for up to a year for people experiencing homelessness.

The shelter, which will have 12 single units, will be built on a vacant land next to the Union Mission shelter at 2217 Harrison Ave. in Latrobe. This project will help the county stabilize homeless households while individuals try to find permanent affordable housing.
Additionally, it will allow for physical distancing within the shelter system to mitigate the risk posed by Covid-19 or future pandemic emergencies. The project has been allocated $2,332,000 of CDBG-CV funding, and the construction is expected to be completed in July 2023.

Economic Growth Connection

EGC helps Weaver Development obtain low-interest loan for expansion

Economic Growth Connection Westmoreland announces two loans that it facilitated.

Weaver Development, Inc. was approved for a 10-year $1,180,000 loan with a 20-year amortization at a 2.5-percent reset interest rate to acquire 3.8 acres and build two 15,000-square-foot industrial flex buildings in the Bushy Run Corporate Park in Penn Township. The total project cost is $2,950,000.

The Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation, through the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland, was approved for a 15-year $2,250,000 loan at a 3.5-percent fixed interest rate to finance site preparation work for the future development of 78.8 acres into three ready-to-build, “pad ready” sites consisting of 15-30 acres per pad at State Route 3193 in Mount Pleasant, East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County. The total project cost is $6,315,500.

Industrial Development Corporation

Located across from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, Westmoreland Airpark has available eight lots that range in size from 5.02 to 8.2 acres.

Latrobe Animal Clinic purchases 3.86 acres at Westmoreland Airpark

An LLC representing veterinarians Ben and Julie Helman purchased 3.86 acres in Westmoreland Airpark that will be the future home of Latrobe Animal Clinic.

BHG Properties LLC purchased the Unity Township lot for $122,150 in August. The Helmans plan to build a 6,000-7,000-SF veterinary hospital that will enable the husband-and-wife veterinarians to double or triple their staff within three to five years, which will increase their annual patient capacity by several thousand. The couple eventually expects to explore adding other services to the quality wellness, medical and surgical care they already provide. For details, click here.

All of the available space at Jeannette Industrial Park is now under agreement.

Scott Electric signs five-year lease; Jeannette Industrial Park now fully leased

In July, all 211,433 SF of leasable space at Jeannette Industrial Park came under agreement when Scott Electric signed a five-year lease for the last-available space in the park, Suite 102. The lease for the 50,095 SF of space takes effect Sept. 1.

A Greensburg-based wholesale electrical distributor, Scott Electric has been in business since 1946 and employs 680 people at multiple locations. It plans to move one of its wholly owned subsidiaries to the recently renovated suite. Initially there will be 26 employees at the location, but the company anticipates adding five to 10 new jobs in the near future.

For more information, click here.

Sign up for WCIDC's weekly 'Featured Site' newsletter

Stay up to date on available commercial properties in Westmoreland County with our weekly "Featured Site" newsletter. Highlighting the commercial properties on westmorelandsites.com, this mailing list is ideal for business owners, real estate agents and site-selection specialists. Sign up here.

Planning Division

County gathers data to identify how to move ahead with Broadband initiative

In July, Westmoreland County, through its Department of Planning and Development initiated a Data Collection and Feasibility Study to identify gaps in high-speed internet coverage throughout the county. This data will be crucial in helping to secure funding and challenge the current FCC data, which states that the county is approximately 98.8 percent served. However, with additional data and a new, higher speed requirement for internet service to be considered adequate, only 35 percent of the county may have sufficient broadband access.

Data collection will be a two-pronged approach and will continue through October. One method of collection is a survey, online at WestmorelandBroadband.org. The survey includes an automatic speed test, as well as questions on access, affordability, and reliability. The additional data will be collected by fieldwork crews performing site visits, observing infrastructure and leaving door hangers that ask people to participate in our online survey.

Broadband Taskforce members met to strategize the best way to improve broadband internet access in the county.

The county also held its first in-person Broadband Taskforce visioning and strategy meeting. The meeting was attended by the county Board of Commissioners and industry sector leaders from across the county, as well as State Rep. Eric Davanzo and a representative from Sen. Kim Ward’s office. Taskforce members helped define the issue, identify priorities, look at where there is a lack of infrastructure, and see which communities have additional socioeconomic barriers to access. It also served as a great brainstorming session for our communications plan, where we gathered information on how to best spread the word and get as many survey responses as possible. Next steps will be using the data collection in a feasibility study, which will create a roadmap of how the county and its Westmoreland Broadband initiative should move forward.

The goal of the current phase is to collect survey responses and geographically spread throughout the county, particularly in regions that do not have access. If you have email lists or social media sites that you would be willing to help us spread the survey, please contact Corey Block at [email protected] or 724-830-3605.

Central Planning District land-use map

[click to enlarge]

Central Planning District update

Since the Central Planning District kickoff in January, municipal officials have identified the unique areas throughout the district that present opportunities for preservation, enhancement and transformation. Input gathered through this phase was used to develop a future land-use map of the district, which will help officials make land-use decisions down the line. Officials also prioritized land-use strategies — such as eliminating blight, investing in downtowns, providing housing options and enhancing trail systems — from the county’s Reimagining Our Westmoreland comprehensive plan to better align strategies with the interests of the central Westmoreland communities.

The Planning Districts process taps into the natural relationships and groupings that exist between communities to address shared challenges such as blight, population loss and limited access to transportation. The process also provides an opportunity to align county strategies with local priorities and better address the issues that arise from an aging and declining population to ultimately help attract, develop, and retain a diverse and stable workforce that will sustain a healthy economy.

The Central Planning District is made up of 15 communities — the cities of Greensburg, Jeannette and Latrobe; Hempfield and Unity townships; and the boroughs of Adamsburg, Arona, Hunker, Madison, New Stanton, Penn, South Greensburg, Southwest Greensburg, Youngstown and Youngwood.

Over the next several meetings, representatives will focus their efforts on identifying mobility and transportation projects throughout the district. As land use and mobility are inextricably linked, the future land-use map will serve as a base for the district’s transportation projects map. These maps will help ensure that future transportation policy, investments, projects and improvements are compatible with the district’s land-use priorities.

Throughout the rest of the year, local officials will engage in activities and discussions focused on intergovernmental opportunities to encourage communities to work together beyond the Planning District process. To follow the process, see https://www.reimaginingourwestmoreland.org/.

TRAMS program digitizes West Leechburg zoning map

Through the TRAMS program, Planning staff recently teamed up with West Leechburg Borough to digitize the borough’s zoning map. Prepared in 2009, the borough’s zoning map is currently only available in a black and white, paper-based/PDF, format. Using GIS, planners will be able to digitize the zoning map, creating a user-friendly web-based map. The digitized zoning map will allow borough staff, residents, and developers to access the map online, search for a property by address, change basemap layers, click/pan/zoom, and easily identify the zoning district classification for a property.

According to Matt Grantz, West Leechburg Borough council member, the borough is interested in digitizing its zoning map to make it accessible from the borough’s website for staff and residents. The borough also hopes the end product will be similar to the City of Greensburg’s online zoning map, which was digitized through the TRAMS program. County planners anticipate the project to be completed before the end of fall.

In addition to the zoning digitization project, the Planning Division also has had tremendous interest by several communities for projects like blight plans, blight inventories and a comprehensive plan update. Projects like these help provide essential planning services to communities at an affordable cost, compared to private consulting firms, and also provides an opportunity for the county to align its strategies with local plans and projects. Municipal officials who are interested in using the TRAMS program should contact Deputy Director Daniel Carpenter at [email protected] or 724-830-3768.

Redevelopment Authority

Designation of ARPA Funds Announced

At the July 14 Commissioner's public meeting, the Redevelopment Authority was announced as a recipient of a portion of the county's American Rescue Plan funds. It is an exciting time - these funds will enable RA/LB to hit the ground running to remediate blight in the areas of Westmoreland County that were most impacted by the pandemic.

Empirical evidence shows that removing and otherwise remediating blight improves the mental and physical health of community residents, increases economic and business development expansion, and creates opportunities for safe, clean, affordable housing. Keep an eye on RA/LB Facebook and LinkedIn pages for updates as they continue their mission to help build healthy and whole communities in Westmoreland County. There is a lot of work to be done, and the RA/LB team could not be more excited to tackle it!

Marty Knizner joins RA/LB as project manager

Marty Knizner

In anticipation of the increased workload that will come hand-in-hand with the ARPA funding, RA/LB has welcomed a new staff member to their team. Martin (Marty) Knizner, originally from the Youngwood and Greensburg areas, has traveled across the United States, gaining expertise in various aspects of the construction industry since the 1980’s. Most recently, Marty lived in Phoenix, AZ, where he was a Commercial Builder’s Project Manager, working on such projects as a Canopy by Hilton in Scottsdale, and a seven-story, multi-family project in downtown Phoenix. Marty and his wife, Nancy, relocated back to the area with the intent to retire - until the opportunity to make a real, impactful difference in their hometown came knocking in the form of the RA/LB’s project manager position.

“We knew that if the county commissioners designated our agency as a recipient of ARPA funds, it would be an all-hands-on-deck scenario, but when we saw the actual scope of what we could accomplish, we quickly realized that we were going to need more hands,” said Brian Lawrence, RA/LB executive director. “We’re all excited to welcome Marty, and I know that his vast experience and local roots will make him a key member of the team as we begin to remediate Westmoreland County’s blight at unprecedented levels.”

When not actively engaged in the fight on blight, Marty enjoys renovating his 100-year old cabin in Ligonier and its surrounding landscaping with his wife, and spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Blight-remediation event planned for October

RA/LB’s fall blight-remediation event — What Can a Blight Plan Do For You? — promises to be an informative session with plenty of time for questions, conversations and networking. A follow-up to the Spring Blight Boot Camp, it will feature regional blight-remediation experts from Local Government Academy, various county departments, community organizations and more. Speakers will outline how communities can start blight inventories and plans, and they also will share available resources and provide guidance on the next steps to take. Partner organizations will be on hand to share information on the services that can help communities remediate blight. Ticket sales have begun, and a few partner sponsorship spots still remain, but both are selling quickly!

Click here to register. For details on event sponsorship opportunities, click here.

Browse the Land Bank's inventory of properties

The Land Bank has helped re-energize communities by facilitating the rehabilitation of dozens of properties throughout the county. To view a map of all Land Bank projects past and present and browse a list of the current inventory of properties, click here.

Interested in purchasing and rehabbing a Lank Bank property? You can learn more by clicking here.

Development Council

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