Plan for Freeport Road rescinded

In a unanimous decision Wednesday, Aspinwall council members voted to rescind support for a controversial new intersection at Freeport Road and Eastern Avenue to accommodate a riverfront development in favor of a new plan to gain access to the site via three new connections.

The vote came after developer Mosites Co. this week withdrew its request for access to the proposed Riverfront 47 site from Eastern Avenue.

An April 10 memo to Aspinwall council members from Councilman Trip Oliver, the chairman of the council planning and zoning committee, outlines a new plan in which the proposed Riverfront 47 development would access its riverfront property at the former AZCON scrap yard through a new connection with the Highland Park Bridge in O’Hara, Brilliant Avenue in Aspinwall and 19th Street in Sharpsburg.

The idea came from Aspinwall Councilman Mark Ellermeyer, who approached the state Department of Transportation and the development partners, led by Mosites.

Over the objections of hundreds of vocal residents during

a meeting in February, Mosites asked for — and was granted — the backing of Aspinwall council to reallocate $1.2 million in state and county grant funds that had been intended for a new intersection at Brilliant Avenue and move the funding to Eastern Avenue.

The site along the Allegheny River straddles parts of Aspinwall, O’Hara and Sharpsburg. Mosites plans to build a mixed-use residential, commercial and light-industrial park at the 47-acre site.

In a letter to council on Wednesday, Mosites representative Mark Minnerly said the company’s decision to remove Eastern Avenue from consideration in favor of returning to the original plan to use Brilliant Avenue was based largely on negative public opinion and concern that the project would exacerbate traffic on Freeport Road.

Although they supported the previous plan to connect with Eastern Avenue, members of the Aspinwall Riverfront Park say they now back the new plan.

“An entrance at Brilliant Avenue would better connect the park and development with Aspinwall’s business district, be safer and less disruptive for traffic, and perhaps most importantly for park-goers, provide an access road that skirts the park’s edge instead of going deep into its green spaces,” said Trish Klatt, board president, who said the board was swayed by concerns about traffic stacking too near railroad tracks. “We’re also excited about the possibility of a third access point to the development via a Route 28 on/off ramp near the Highland Park Bridge.

Opponents of the Eastern Avenue project, who formed a group called Priority Aspinwall, were heartened said member Lara Voytko.