A new program in Warren County aims to incentivize redevelopment projects and lower the cost of building improvements for home and business owners.
The new residential and commercial tax abatement program includes several Warren County municipalities. In those municipalities, a person building a home or redeveloping a property would not have their taxes increased to reflect the improvements for up to five years.
This type of program exists and has been successful in Erie, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, according to Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston. He said entire neighborhoods have been redeveloped in those cities with this kind of incentives. But similar programs in other rural counties do not offer 100% tax abatement for a full five years, like this one does.
“This will be the most extensive and aggressive tax abatement program of any rural county in the state of Pennsylvania, as far as I’m concerned,” Eggleston said.
Eggleston created the Redevelopment Task Force in 2019 and the county’s tax abatement program.
“The Redevelopment Task Force had cited this as an opportunity for the community to generate growth. We did a lot of work to get a lot of municipalities on board - a lot more than I would have thought when we first started it,” Eggleston said.
To take part in the program, a property has to be in a participating municipality and the owner must fill out an application. Some municipalities require that properties or areas be “deteriorated.”
The participating municipalities are the city of Warren, Clarendon Borough, Glade Township, Limestone Township, Pleasant Township, Sheffield Township, Tidioute Borough, and Youngsville Borough. Conewango and Pine Grove Townships are also participating, but have different program structures.
