Peduto: New focus for URA will reflect modern needs
From the days of former Mayor David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority has been involved in some of the biggest projects in the city, including those in Downtown.
But now Mayor Bill Peduto is touting a new URA — one focused on neighborhood development and small businesses.
To help launch the effort, the URA board plans to consider hiring New York-based consultant HR&A Advisors Inc. — the same company that helped with the region’s bid for Amazon’s second headquarters — next month to assist in charting the path for the agency in future years.
Taking a page from President Donald Trump, Mr. Peduto signaled the change of course in a tweet Tuesday evening: “Over the next few years, we will reestablish Mayor Lawrence’s URA, to address the challenges of today’s Pittsburgh & invest in the opportunities to restore our neighborhoods & build a Pittsburgh for all. The time is now. A new URA ...
coming soon.”
In an interview Wednesday, the mayor said major developments still will be part of the URA’s work, just not the focus.
“The focus has to become more centered on neighborhood plans that are developed through the planning department being implemented on a much smaller scale: small businesses, being able to help entrepreneurs to redevelop the neighborhood business districts that haven’t seen investment. These are all the critical parts of today’s URA and we need to restructure the organization around that,” he said.
Mr. Peduto said the change in emphasis was an outgrowth of talks with local foundations and a Brookings Institution report last year that called for the creation of an Oakland innovation district to help take better advantage of the expertise of the local universities and hospitals.
The goal, he said, is to create a “new focus and a new mission that builds off of the work that was done 50 years ago, but realizes that Pittsburgh’s needs are vastly different than they were when this organization was created.”
Mr. Peduto said the change in course would not result in the loss of any employees.
“We’re just looking at reestablishing what the departments and what the mission of the URA should be. But the foundation community and our administration agreed that a lot of the tasks that we assign to the URA simply aren’t possible due to the capacity of the present organization,” he said.
HR&A Advisors is expected to help guide the shaping of the new Urban Redevelopment Authority; meet with various constituencies, neighborhood groups, and others; develop potential economic development goals; and recommend potential partnerships or transfer of responsibilities to or from the URA.
“We know that when David Lawrence created the URA, it was about massive projects. It was about 1940s and ‘50s urban renewal, which was done with a wrecking ball,” the mayor said.
“It’s a very different need today, and we need to have an organization that has the capacity to be able to deliver the needs of our neighborhoods.”
URA board chairman Kevin Acklin, former chief of staff to Mr. Peduto, said the goal ultimately is to “help us reorganize the URA to better serve the city.”
“As we approach the 75th anniversary of the URA, the mayor has asked us to take a hard look at how we are serving a growing and ever-changing city,” he said.
“This project is about investing in the hardworking staff at URA, to critically review our many programs and investment strategies, so we can arm the URA with the best tools to help build a more equitable city.”