Reading weighs vacant-property registry and rising fees

Reading is moving to make the owners of empty buildings register them with the city and pay a semiannual fee, a new tool aimed at the blight that lines parts of the city. The base fee would be $200 every six months, but for a building left to become a nuisance or fall out of code, it would climb the longer the property sits vacant, reaching $5,000 for one empty more than 10 years.

City Council introduced the plan at its Aug. 10 regular meeting and took it up for review at its Aug. 17 Committee of the Whole, a working session. A final vote could come as soon as council's next regular meeting, Monday, Aug. 24. The Reading Eagle reported on the proposal on Aug. 17.

What the ordinance would do

The measure (Bill 70-2026) repeals the city's current abandoned-property rules and replaces them with a new Vacant and Abandoned Property chapter of the city code, according to the bill text attached to the meeting agenda.

It would require the owner of any vacant property, and the mortgage holder on any property in foreclosure or default, to register it with the city's Property Maintenance Division within 10 days, renew that registration every six months, and pay a fee each time. The city would post the registered properties, including photos, on its website. The stated goals are to track empty buildings, address the fire hazards and squatting that come with them, and push owners to fix up or sell.

A companion measure (Bill 71-2026) sets the fees in the city fee schedule.

How the fees work

The base registration fee is $200 every six months. For a building that becomes a public nuisance or falls out of code compliance on the outside, the fee rises with 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 beyond 10

Missing a scheduled inspection without 24 hours' notice adds a $500 charge. The money goes into a dedicated account to cover the cost of running and enforcing the program.

What happens to owners who don't comply

The ordinance carries enforcement teeth. An owner who fails to register or pay faces a fine of $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, the owner must file a plan to fix it. If the owner does not, the city can hire its own contractor to clear the nuisance and bill the owner, placing a lien on the property if the bill goes unpaid. A one-time fee waiver is available, and the rules leave in place the city's separate blighted-property review process. If enacted, the ordinance takes effect 10 days later.

Reading is the county seat and largest municipality in Berks County, and how city government differs from the county and your township is covered in 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.

Also on the agenda

The same night, council advanced a separate measure (Bill 67-2026) to re-enact and extend the city's commercial tax-abatement program, known as LERTA, for another 10 years. The program, first adopted in 1985, lets owners of qualifying commercial projects phase in the higher property taxes that follow an improvement rather than pay the full increase at once.

How to weigh in

Reading City Council meets in Council Chambers at City Hall, 815 Washington St., and streams its meetings on Zoom, on BCTV MAC Channel 99, and on Facebook. Public comment is taken at regular business meetings. City residents and taxpayers can pre-register by 4 p.m. on the meeting day by calling the City Clerk's office at 610-655-6205 or emailing council@readingpa.gov, or sign up in person in Council Chambers between 5 and 7 p.m. Speakers get five minutes on agenda items and three on other topics. The next regular meeting is Monday, Aug. 24.