Reading Enacts Vacant-Property Registry, Fees Up to $5K

Reading now requires the owners of empty buildings to register them with the city and pay a fee every six months, a fee that climbs to $5,000 for the properties left vacant and neglected the longest. City Council enacted the registry Monday, Aug. 24, on a 6-0 vote, along with a companion measure that sets the fees.

The same night, council voted to extend the city's commercial tax-abatement program, known as LERTA, for another 10 years. Both measures reach property owners across Reading, the county seat and largest municipality in Berks County. We previewed the registry before the vote; this is what council adopted.

What the registry does

Bill 70-2026 repeals the city's old abandoned-property rules and replaces them with a new Chapter 560, "Vacant and Abandoned Property," in the city code, according to the Aug. 24 meeting minutes. It requires the owner of any vacant property, and the mortgage holder on any property in foreclosure or default, to register it with the city within 10 days, renew that registration every six months, and pay a fee each time. The city will post the registered properties, including photos, on its website.

How the fees work

Bill 71-2026 puts the fees in the city fee schedule under a new section, 212-144. The minutes describe a sliding scale running from $200 to $5,000 every six months. The bill text attached to the Aug. 17 working session sets the tiers: a base fee of $200 every six months, rising for a building that becomes a public nuisance or falls out of code compliance on the outside, based on how long it has stood vacant.

• $500 for a building vacant up to two years
• $1,000 for two to five years
• $2,500 for five to 10 years
• $5,000 for more than 10 years, plus another $1,000 for each additional year past 10

Missing a scheduled inspection without 24 hours' notice adds a $500 charge. Councilor Miller said the escalating fee is meant to push owners to fix up or sell rather than sit on empty buildings.

What happens to owners who don't comply

The rules let the city fine an owner who fails to register or pay $500 to $1,000 for the first two uncorrected violations and up to $5,000 after that, or up to 90 days in jail, with each day counted as a separate offense. Unpaid fees can become a lien on the property. If a registered property is a public nuisance and the owner does not file a plan to fix it, the city can hire its own contractor to clear the nuisance and bill the owner.

The new chapter also gives owners a way out. It allows a one-time waiver of the registration fee, and it lets an owner appeal a fee or a violation to the city's Code and License Appeals Board, including on the ground that a property is vacant but not in default. Bill 71-2026 moved the appeal fees to a new section of the fee schedule, 212-104. The ordinance takes effect 10 days after enactment.

The LERTA extension

Bill 67-2026 re-enacts and extends the city's commercial LERTA program for 10 more years. LERTA, short for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, lets the owner of a qualifying commercial project phase in the higher property taxes that follow an improvement instead of paying the full increase at once. The city first adopted the program in 1985 and has extended it three times since, according to the minutes. Managing Director Jack Gombach told council the program is an incentive for investment, and that the city's approval clears the way for Berks County to approve its own LERTA break on qualifying projects.

Also on the agenda

Council enacted five other ordinances the same night, each 6-0: a $150 zoning-permit fee for home occupations (Bill 68; a move to lower it to $100 died for lack of a second), rules allowing backyard honeybee hives across the city's zoning districts (Bill 69), a $75,000 transfer to BCTV from a cable-franchise grant (Bill 66), a $15,000 state grant to the city's EMS (Bill 72), and a $40,000 shift within the building-trades budget (Bill 73). A separate zoning change to off-street parking rules (Bill 38) stayed tabled.

For how city government differs from the county and your township, see our guide to how Berks County government works. The city has used code and zoning tools before, including a pause on new data centers adopted in July and a move to pull 13 charter questions off the ballot.