PITTSBURGH, PA (June 24, 2021) – The City of Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses and
Inspections (PLI) has launched a new interactive website on EngagePGH for the city’s condemned
properties. Residents can view all condemned structures and key information about them as well as
provide comments on specific structures. Community feedback collected from the site will be used with
PLI’s internal condemned properties scoring system to prioritize demolitions and better account for
community and funding needs.
“We are dedicated to ensuring continued safety in our built environment. In 2020, PLI performed 29
emergency demolitions to imminently dangerous properties,” said PLI Director Sarah Kinter. “PLI will
continue to immediately demolish the most dangerous structures in the city. This webpage provides us
with an opportunity to incorporate public feedback into our decisions to prioritize demolition of
condemned structures that are not imminently dangerous, but are unsafe and effect the wellbeing of
neighbors.”
Currently, there are more than 1,900 condemned properties across the city that require ongoing
assessment and monitoring. In June 2020, PLI launched a new code enforcement system in OneStopPGH
which allows them to automate inspection cycles and adopt a new scoring system to standardize and
accurately compare condemned structures. Within the last year, PLI's team of Vacant Property Inspectors
have scored over 1,600 of the current condemned properties.
The scoring system, which ranges from one to 60, allows the City to appropriately identify the worst
structures, anticipate the need and costs for annual demolitions, and provide other agencies with
information about structures that can be put back into productive use. It’s based on structural factors such
as major and minor damage to key building elements and additional conditions including the structure’s
proximity to the right of way and to adjacent occupied structures. The City’s Department of City Planning
(DCP) has also scored condemned buildings to identify and save key structures that are historically and
architecturally significant.
For more information, visit the EngagePGH site.
