City sets hearings linked to affordable housing
City residents will have two chances this week to speak in Pittsburgh City Council on neighborhood issues in East Liberty and Lawrenceville stemming from the affordable housing debate.
On Monday, council will open the floor for an evening hearing on a land swap of a portion of East Liberty’s 2.2- acre Enright Parklet, adjacent to the controversial Penn Plaza site development.
The city and developer Pennley Park South Inc. are set to swap two equal sections of land to reconfigure a portion of the park along South Euclid Avenue. The land transfer must go through the Orphans Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
Residents petitioned for the public hearing about the swap of a portion of the park for an abutting piece of property to “make sure the public is fully aware of this process and has the opportunity to weigh in on a change to public lands that will impact their quality of life,” said Sallyann Kluz, organizer with the Enright Parklet Neighborhood Association.
Council agreed to preserve the public green space in 2016 after public outcry over the city’s initial plan to sell the land to Pennley Park South.
The company is set to build a nine- story, 246,090- square- foot retail and office complex where apartments that were once an option for low- income renters stood.
More than 200 residents lived in the apartments in 2015 when development plans were announced, and the proposed project became a lightning rod issue for affordable housing activism in Pittsburgh.
Larry Gumberg, principal for Pennley Park South, said the land’s reconfiguration will make the park more accessible.
The company has committed $ 1 million toward the park’s rehabilitation.
Another affordable housing conversation is brewing among the residents of the hot- market Lawrenceville neighborhood.
Nearly 30 people plan to speak on Tuesday afternoon in favor of an affordable housing measure that would require developers to
make 10% of units affordable in any new project in Lawrenceville that has at least 20 units.
The city’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended the special zoning designation — called inclusionary zoning — in April.
“We’re excited to see it has gotten this far, and we’re hoping to see council pass it,” said David Breingan, who represents the community organization Lawrenceville United.
The median home value in and around Lawrenceville shot up from $ 96,400 in January 2015 to $ 214,000 in January 2019, according to the housing market website Zillow.
A 2017 Pittsburgh PostGazette analysis found that between 2011 and 2016 Lawrenceville lost 120 units that accepted Section 8 housing vouchers for low- income residents.
Both hearings will be held in Council Chambers on the fifth floor of the CityCounty Building, Downtown. The Enright Parklet hearing will begin at 6 p. m. Monday; the hearing on inclusionary zoning for Lawrenceville begins at 1: 30 p. m. Tuesday.