Latrobe looks to update zoning, tackle blight

Latrobe is seeking outside help to update city zoning regulations that have been in place for more than a decade.

City Council this week agreed to work with nonprofit Scenic Pittsburgh to review Latrobe’s 2006 zoning ordinance and identify any sections that need to be revised.

The review is in its infancy, and a consulting contract has yet to be approved.

“It’s a slow process,” city manager Mike Gray said of the ordinance review. “Before anything is passed or changed, there would be a public hearing. Nothing is set in stone yet.”

He said meetings of a zoning review committee, including council members Jim Kelley and Ralph Jenko, may begin in September.

“We want to look at our zoning to see what conflicts and problems we have, and to see what we need to do to correct that,” Gray said.

He said Scenic Pittsburgh offers various types of assistance to communities in Allegheny and surrounding counties.

“This is a way we can utilize an outside consultant to help see if there’s any ideas or recommendations that they may have, based on other communities, and see if we can tailor that to fit our needs in the city,” he said.

“There are things that are not in the zoning ordinance that should be brought into it,” said city code enforcement officer Ann Powell, who will participate in the review. “Things change, and we have to keep up with them.”

She noted several electronic message boards have been installed in the city in recent years. She said the signs, including one at the Latrobe campus of Westmoreland County Community College, aren’t close to residential properties and haven’t generated any complaints.

But, she said, “We just don’t have rules for them.”

In addition to tidying up zoning regulations, Latrobe wants to assess and address blighted properties in the city.

Gray said he’s working with other city officials to compile a list of run-down structures and seek funding for obtaining such properties and demolishing them.

“I want to put a plan together of where the blighted properties are at and how many we can acquire,” he said.

City officials are hoping to purchase two vacant residential properties in a September tax sale and raze them using about $55,000 in community development block grant funding.