The scope of a novel tax-break program meant to battle blighted properties in Greensburg, Pennsylvania could soon expand to include the entire city.
City council, Westmoreland County and Greensburg Salem school directors will vote next month whether to approve the plan, devised by the Greensburg Community Development Corporation.
When the proposal was presented in May, it applied only to the city’s Main Street district, surrounding the county courthouse, and the health care district, surrounding Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital.
City officials urged the development corporation to expand it to encompass the entire city.
“There are other properties in the city outside those two areas that could benefit from something like this,” said city Planning Director Barbara Ciampini.
The city planning commission voted this year to define the entire city as blighted. That doesn’t mean every neighborhood or property is run-down, Ciampini said, but that the city’s problematic areas are serious enough to affect the community as a whole.