The City of Pottsville voted Monday evening to start the process of taking three rundown residential properties on Mahantongo St. by eminent domain.
Its goal is to seize the properties and raze them, potentially by this Spring.
The properties at 800, 802, and 804 Mahantongo St. were last discussed in 2025 when the previous administration voted to start the conservatorship process.
On Monday, Mayor Tom Smith said those properties were at the bottom of a proverbial pile in terms of conservatorship and doesn’t believe they’re even good candidates for that process.
So instead, the City Council voted to take the properties by eminent domain with the ultimate goal of knocking them down.
Interim Solicitor Gretchen Sterns said that the administration examined how best to get these properties knocked down quickly.
After Monday’s meeting, she said that conservatorship would take about nine months with no hiccups along the way.
That process would still require finding a buyer for three properties that can only aspire to be labeled undesirable.
Smith said he wants the three homes down by the Yuengling Light Lager Jogger event, which is scheduled for April 18 in Pottsville. The three properties are right near the start/finish line of the 5K race that annually draws a very large crowd to the city.
“A conservatorship is geared to a property that can be rehabilitated,” Sterns said. “These properties are too far gone for rehabilitation.”
Sterns said that taking the properties by eminent domain would get them razed quicker and that Pottsville likely could make use of funds available through Schuylkill County government to pay for their demolition if it pursued this path versus issuing an emergency order to bring them down.
The buildings likely qualify to come down under an emergency order but funds may not be available for that pursuit. Eminent domain, Sterns said, is the “cleaner path” to getting them razed quickly and economically.
The first step to seizing properties by eminent domain is the passage of an ordinance. A first reading of an ordinance to take the properties this way was held on Monday. Council must wait seven days for the second reading and that’s expected to happen on Jan. 26, at a special council meeting.
After the ordinances pass, Pottsville can then file to take the properties by eminent domain through Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas.
The current owners of the properties can challenge the City’s actions and argue that they’re not valid condemnations. They can also file for “just compensation” for the properties, Sterns said.
Pottsville will have to get the properties appraised at some point during this process to see what, if any, value the properties have against any code violation fines they may have accrued on the way to their current condition.
According to Schuylkill County’s Parcel Locator, here’s ownership information on the three properties eyed for eminent domain:
800 Mahantongo St.
- Owner: Rachid Arraki, of New York, NY
- Assessed value: $147,800
- Last sale: $2,700 in July 2017
- Sq
802 Mahantongo St.
- Owner: Smiles Enterprises, of Patterson, NJ
- Assessed value: $63,100
- Last sale: $10,000 in May 2022
804 Mahantongo St.
- Owner: Smiles Enterprises, of Patterson, NJ
- Assessed value: $106,600
- Last sale: $10,000 in May 2022
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