Affordable housing pushed for site

Coalition seeks input on Point Breeze redevelopment

With affordable housing becoming a hot issue in the East End and elsewhere in Pittsburgh, some local advocates see an opportunity to address it in the proposed redevelopment of Lexington Technology Park in North Point Breeze.

Members of the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition urged the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board last week to include a significant amount of affordable housing in any plan for the reuse of the property.

“The city has talked the talk about affordable housing and talked about a commitment to access and mobility, but here’s the opportunity to actually prove it,” said Crystal Jennings, organizer of the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition.

“The Lexington site is next to the best transit in the city — the [Martin Luther King] East Busway. Residents displaced from the city in the East End and North Point Breeze and Homewood should have the right to return to affordable housing in the neighborhood, and it should be built there.”

Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, sent a letter to URA board members and chairman Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto, backing the group’s efforts.

“With all that has gone on in recent years and months in the East Liberty/East Side developments, we remain very concerned about the ability of those who have lived — in many cases for decades — in this and similar communities to be

“This potential development presents a huge opportunity to reinvest in the North Point Breeze and Homewood neighborhoods, and we are supportive of an investment of affordable housing.” — Kevin Acklin, URA chairman

able to continue to do so in the future. This trend toward gentrification must stop!” he wrote.

“Affordable housing needs to be not a nice sounding statement, but instead a fully embraced position by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and by all persons in position to create a meaningful, fair and transformational approach as to how housing policies are developed in our city going forward.”

The URA is planning to issue a request for proposals for the redevelopment of Lexington Technology Park, a 16-acre site that includes a mix of office and industrial space, vacant commercial properties, a vacant warehouse, and surface parking.

Given the booming development nearby in East Liberty and at Bakery Square in Larimer and Shadyside, the agency sees the potential for a mix of housing, office and light industrial at the site.

It envisions housing filling several parcels on North Homewood Avenue and McPherson Boulevard. According to the URA, the property currently is used for parking. Two residential dwellings also would be involved.

Buildings 1 and 2 within the complex would be marketed for commercial redevelopment. The URA hopes to find developers interested in buying the property to complete the housing and commercial aspects.

Ms. Jennings said the coalition believes that at least 30 percent to 40 percent of any housing to be built at Lexington Technology Park should be affordable to lower income residents. Optimally, all housing would be affordable, she said.

Coalition members and B-PEP also pressed the board for an open and transparent process in selecting a developer.

In response, Mr. Acklin said the URA is “committed to an open and transparent community process, and will hold community meetings prior to the issuance of the RFP.”

“This potential development presents a huge opportunity to reinvest in the North Point Breeze and Homewood neighborhoods, and we are supportive of an investment of affordable housing,” he said.

“We will continue to work with the community toward a transformational development for this corner of the city.”

Allegheny County announced last month it was relocating its emergency services department and 911 operations center from Lexington Technology Park to the former US Airways flight operations control center in Moon now owned by the county’s airport authority.

The move, which has been criticized by county controller Chelsa Wagner, is expected to take 12 to 18 months. The URA, which has owned the Lexington complex since 1996 when it was donated by Rockwell, hopes to have a developer chosen for the site by the end of this year.