Blight woes, park upgrades focus of Greensburg plan update

Jeff Himler | Friday, June 10, 2022 10:12 a.m.

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review

Riders take off toward the Five Star Trail from downtown Greensburg on April 8, 2021. Biking, trail and park enhancements are among needs cited during recent public input sessions for Greensburg’s comprehensive plan update.

Blight mitigation and enhancement of parks and recreation are two areas that have generated public interest as Greensburg updates the city’s comprehensive plan.

A series of three public workshops generated more than 500 written comments.

“People have expressed a desire for more public green space and improvements to park and trail amenities,” said Trajan Jones, a student planner for the city.

At the same time, Jones said, “We’ve found that there’s a lack of communication between residents and the city that allows blight to remain unsolved.”

Jones, who is a senior planning major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, brought City Council up to date on the Shape Greensburg planning process as team members work on a draft of the comprehensive plan for review by a steering committee later this month.

Council is expected to consider the final plan in December.

Recommendations for addressing the blight information gap include public education about city code requirements and promoting community cleanup events, Jones said.

For the past few years, Greensburg has been marking many blighted properties in the city with a red “x.”

At this time of year, “an increasing number of red ‘x’ properties are popping up,” said city planning director Jeff Raykes. He said the city’s code enforcement staff has been responding to complaints about properties with overgrown grass.

“We sometimes find a property is vacant and nobody knew it was vacant until the grass started getting really high,” Raykes said.

Tom Bell, director of public works, said his staff has been cutting grass on about 30 vacant properties.

Suggestions from the most recent workshop on May 14 included mobilizing a network of business and service organizations to assist with property maintenance and rehabilitation and passing a “quality of life” ordinance to make code enforcement ticket-based instead of court-based.

Other proposals: revising zoning to allow a mix of small businesses and housing in selected locations; providing more city services online; reducing speed limits on major roads entering the city; dedicating bicycle lanes along key corridors; and installing welcome signs to better identify city parks.

Those who weren’t able to attend one of the workshops can visit shapegreensburg.com for more information or to make a comment.