Frustration was running high about the continued limbo at the Cranberry Mall at Tuesday’s Cranberry Township Economic Development Committee meeting.
Mall management has no updates on the state of the mall sale, which last anyone had heard was still in negotiations, said mall office assistant Linda Herbster.
“I have a firm belief that a government entity needs to intervene,” said committee member Judy Etzel, adding that she thought either the township supervisors or county commissioners need to take some kind of action on the mall.
Etzel also noted the loss of tax revenue from the amount of vacancies at the deteriorating mall, as well as the danger posed by some issues such as the potholes in the parking lot, and the fact that it’s not helping local businesses by attracting people to the area.
“Unless someone who has clout…gets in there, it’s not going to change,” Etzel said.
Panel member Lisa Groner asked how a local entity could intervene in the sale, and Etzel suggested checking for code violations at the property.
Herbster said management’s “hands are tied.”
Committee chairperson Bonnie Summers said there is legislation currently in the state House of Representatives addressing blighted malls.
Groner said she believed the legislation had come about after the abandoned Century III Mall in Pittsburgh had been vandalized and then someone fell through its roof.
Etzel noted that the Oil City Redevelopment Authority had successfully intervened in the case of the Brody Block in Oil City, which is now Towne Square.
“They stepped up, and it took a long time, but it did work,” she said.
On a more positive note on the topic of blight, Summers said the Venango County Land Bank has removed a great deal of blight in the area and had success getting properties “back to a positive environment and back on the tax roll.”
A formerly blighted Harriott Avenue property in Oil City across from the playground on Harriott has been sold, and the money from the sale can go back to more blight remediation, Summers said.
Committee member Barrie Brancato said that when she had first started with the land bank, one of its big ideas had been cleaning out “corridors” of properties, which she thought was very important especially in the case of entry points to different areas.
“It’s the entrance to where you’re going…you want something that’s going to look nice,” she said.
