Pittsburgh’s Middle Hill neighborhood on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
Hill District groups advance a master plan for city approval, seeking a degree of control over the neighborhood’s future.
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City planners and Hill District community members are in the process of creating a new Greater Hill District Master Plan, a vision statement for several neighborhoods with an emphasis on economic development done in a way to prevent displacement.
The Hill District’s original 2011 master plan provided the community and investors with a framework on the community’s priorities for new residential, commercial, cultural and civic development. Efforts to update the plan kicked off in 2020 and despite the COVID shutdown, meetings persisted online between residents and city planning officials. On Tuesday, planners gave the first of two presentations on the new master plan to the City Planning Commission. A second presentation will be held later this month, after which the commission will decide if the master plan should be adopted by the city.
“One of the guiding principles is that it will build upon the African American cultural legacy,” said Sharonda Whatley, the Department of City Planning’s assistant director of strategic planning, during her presentation Tuesday to the commission. She explained that the plan had eight community goals. “The Hill is committed to cultivating a neighborhood that excels in livability, celebrates and preserves its rich historical heritage and promotes the health and resilience of all residents,” Whatley said.
The plan outlines goals set by the community, such as the desire to ensure all Hill District residents can have all their basic needs met within a 20-minute walk from where they live. To do this, the plan proposes accessibility and community activities on public streets. Whatley also outlined another goal of long–term community resilience through self-sufficiency and representative government.
Some of the other goals of the master plan include improving non-car transportation alternatives and building a mix of new and rehabilitated housing without displacing existing residents.
City planner Christian Umbach cited the vision statement emphasizing preservation of the current neighborhood while embracing new development through “equitable growth.” The policies set forth include limiting the use of eminent domain and providing co-ownership opportunities.
“This would mean essentially encouraging partnerships with local, community-based organizations so that they could share the benefits of development” and preserving space for Hill businesses, Umbach said.
This master plan also takes into consideration the cultural and historical legacy of the area by removing what planners characterized as “any remnant of” the Civic Arena, which was built on the site of hundreds of homes, businesses and institutions including the Bethel AME Church, all demolished under eminent domain to make room for the venue.
Efforts to create a master plan for the Hill District coincide with efforts to come up with a citywide comprehensive plan. According to the Hill Community Development Corp., a registered community organization [RCO] that plays a commanding role in the master plan process, the Hill’s will be the last neighborhood-specific blueprint before city planners shift fully to the citywide plan.
If approved, the Hill District plan would be incorporated into the city’s zoning code and regulatory framework that would dictate and inform all future Hill developments.
The master plan provides the Hill with a framework to direct public, private and institutional resources to support new projects. Much of the plan also emphasizes a need to create a community that is flexible and responsive to changing needs.
The steering committee includes more than 30 people representing various business, political and civic interests in the neighborhoods that make up the Hill.
Commissioner Phillip Wu marveled at the amount of time this process took and wondered if some of the findings and recommendations in the plan might no longer reflect resident sentiment.
Remarking on the opening and closure of Salem’s Market in the area, the new Live Nation concert venue planned for the area and recent storms, Wu asked if there have been any new or emerging focus areas or insights.
Whatley responded that many of the recommendations “have stood the test of the changing issues in the community.”
And with an eye to the next meeting, commission Chair LaShawn Burton-Faulk asked that the presenters come back with information on the Hill’s population and the number of participants in the planning process.
“I’d also like to understand who is driving the plan itself,” Burton-Faulk said. “You’ve got stakeholders, partners, is it the responsibility of the RCOs, your CDCs, I’d like to understand that.”
Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
