ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown Redevelopment Authority board is preparing for a busy six months, as officials aim to get the agency back up to speed by early next year.
Allentown Community and Economic Development Director Vicky Kistler on Wednesday detailed a set of goals she described as “very aggressive,” but attainable.
That list included finalizing sales of several properties owned by the authority, preparing a budget and training members on the processes that developers must follow for various approvals.
“Moving these properties out of the inventory and getting new properties into the inventory is part of that (housing) strategy."Vicky Kistler, community and economic development director
Allentown Redevelopment Authority works to address blight by buying rundown properties and renovating them to be rented or sold.
She recommended the five-member board work for the next six months to offload some of the authority’s “easier” properties as part of the city’s efforts to incorporate results of its housing strategy, due to be revealed Friday, Kistler said.
“Moving these properties out of the inventory and getting new properties into the inventory is part of that strategy,” Kistler told the board Wednesday.
Working through various processes to sell those properties will help the board “develop standard operating procedures that will make the next six months more efficient and more productive,” she said.
Consistency from the board also should send positive signals to investors, businesses and residents looking to buy Redevelopment Authority properties, Kistler said.
Christopher Raad, elected Wednesday as the Redevelopment Authority’s new president, embraced Kistler’s six-month plan.
He said his top priorities include “creating more synergy with the city” and developing “processes that are going to make us more efficient.”
Major grant could open new doors
Allentown officials this month celebrated winning a $20 million federal grant aimed at connecting people in some of the city’s “most-distressed” neighborhoods to good-paying jobs.
Kistler on Wednesday told the Redevelopment Authority board it’s the “biggest grant of my lifetime [and] the biggest challenge of our lifetimes.”
“It may not be the traditional way we think about things, because we tend to think about taking the blighted property and turning it into better housing."Allentown Community and Economic Development Director Vicky Kistler
The grant “does not have a housing focus” and offers no money for housing, but could create new opportunities for the authority to convert some of its buildings into “modern manufacturing or urban job” sites that can employ local residents, Kistler said.
“It may not be the traditional way we think about things, because we tend to think about taking the blighted property and turning it into better housing,” she said.
But the authority “may be able to look at taking the property, turning it into a work site that allows people to earn enough money to fix their own housing — or buy their own housing, is what we're hoping.”
Officials have said they plan to target the $20 million Recompete grant to break down barriers to employment for residents of Allentown’s First and Sixth Wards, Center City and Franklin Park.
Allentown’s application was among six selected for funding from a pool of 565 submissions from across the United States.
