Inclusive Planning: Engaging Community to Plan for the Future

Homewood is one of just 90 city neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh. In April 2019 the community unveiled a Comprehensive Community Plan includes 21 overarching goals for the neighborhood, from improving air quality to better managing vacant property, improving local schools and increasing transit and affordable housing. The plan includes goals focus on food access including forming a group to develop the creation of a food cooperative that can sell affordable, healthy groceries and plans to expand skill-sharing programs to encourage home gardening and build community knowledge around growing food.

During this studio tour participants will learn strategies used by the Homewood community to develop an equitable community plan, how the EcoDistricts protocol helped to inform the plan and will gain strategies to take back to their communities. A focus will be on transferring learning to inform the community plans that will be developed in Hazelwood, Knoxville and Beltzhoover neighborhoods.

The Tale of Three Stations

Micro-mobility and how it can co-exist with Capital T public transit. How to develop equitable TODs. Zoning issues around TOD (in the Pittsburgh region the land that would be used for a TOD is generally
owned by the municipality- this creates zoning and other issues that can make developing a TOD very difficult. Discuss how to work with the transit agency to accomplish this work. Pick up on Railvolution themes. Add affordable housing component. Focus on transit plans including: Uptown Ecodistrict (BRT
plan), East Busway, East Liberty TRID.

Combined with The Larimer Neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh is a Choice Neighborhood Awardee. Much has been
accomplished in Larimer, but the fight is not over and a lot of foundation dollars have been invested. Issues around transportation and STEM programming could be featured. Theme should include how even after investment and focus is put on a neighborhood to redevelop, the work is on-going and the residents and elected officials need to be mindful that the fight for their community is on-going.

Hilltop Revitalization | Challenges turned into Opportunities

Ideally situated with easy access to downtown Pittsburgh and the South Hills, the Allentown/Beltzhoover District has received increased attention by community organizers and developers alike. This studio will start by exploring the importance of McKinley Park and community-led green infrastructure in stormwater mitigation for flood prone Saw Mill Run. During our walk to the East Warrington Ave Main Street we will visit the sites of grassroots community projects focused on creative placemaking and blight remediation (Neighborhood Allies + South Hilltop Men’s Group). In Allentown along the Main Street, there has been a number of recent businesses opening through the support of a rent abatement program (Hilltop Alliance) and co-working community (Work Hard PGH). Our walking tour will end at local developer RE360’s warehouse space where you will join local leaders in thinking through the Allentown/Beltzhoover District’s challenges and opportunities and provide suggestions for equitable, sustainable development.

Grass roots strategies to activate ecodistrict movements

This session will introduce the Millvale ecodistrict, an award-winning community-driven initiative. It will explore the strategies used to develop the ecodistrict and focus on how they leveraged a deep-dive air quality study to educate the community, improve conditions, and contribute to the community’s overall goals. We will explain how our approach of engaging citizens in the monitoring and air quality planning process helps to build community expertise, raise awareness, and inspire action. Through the story of Millvale, the presentation will demonstrate the benefits of coupling placemaking, performance and civic engagement for successful ecodistrict and community planning.

This case study will show how citizen science and community engagement were used to build community capacity; how a bottom-up approach was used to address a regional problem; and will engage attendees in hands-on activities, such as an air quality game.

First In: Lessons Learned from First Project in New District (Mill 19 & Innovation District)

A team of experts in real estate, regional economic development, architecture, and environmental design will lead a discussion about the opportunities and risks involved in repurposing an abandoned steel mill building—the first project to be realized within an ambitious redevelopment master plan for a new neighborhood that promises to become a living emblem of Pittsburgh’s transformation from steel city to advanced manufacturing city.

Centre District: Lower Hill Redevelopment

The redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site (which was an urban renewal project built using eminent domain displaced 8,000 residents and 400 businesses from the historically black neighborhood) has been controversial and has taken the community a number of years and plans to reach this point.

This session will bring together community stakeholders, developers and leadership from the Pittsburgh Penguins to discuss the on-going plans for the Lower Hill redevelopment project. Plans announced in early 2019 and embraced by local and state political leaders include Cap Connection Park, Housing, Office and Retail, a Public Park, Curtain Call (public art project), Small Business Opportunities and a Sustainable Energy Hub.

The project is anticipated to attract over $750 million in private investment, generate about $25 million in annual tax revenue to the City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Allegheny County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It will also generate over 4,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent positions.