Conservancy finishing meetings to get public’s park plan reaction

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has four remaining meetings for its “Parks Plan” listening tour — including one on the North Side Thursday — covering public feedback about city parks and its budget plan to fix the parks should a November ballot referendum pass.

The nonprofit filed a petition on Tuesday to add a question to the ballot that would ask voters to fund the city’s 165 parks through an additional 0.5 mill levy on property taxes ($ 50 for every $ 100,000 of assessed real estate value).

In addition to the four planned meetings, “if a group or community wants us to attend an event, we gladly will,” said John Pepper, conservancy spokesman. “We’ll be putting up a submission form on our website shortly making it easy for the community to invite us.”

Mayor Bill Peduto supports the initiative, and the city and conservancy would jointly manage the funds under a cooperative agreement as well as establish a board made up of city and conservancy officials and citizens, both parties said Tuesday.

However, several City Council members have questioned the merits of the potential tax increase and the management of taxpayer dollars by a nonprofit.

But the conservancy maintains that during a fivemonth, foundation- funded public engagement campaign, 95% of survey respondents said Pittsburgh’s parks need “more resources” and 65% said they need “a lot more.” When asked to rate the parks on a scale of 1 to 10, people gave the parks an average score of 5.

The information- gathering sessions, which began in December 2018, reached 10,000 people at 128 events and gleaned 3,400 completed surveys, according to the conservancy.

“In addition to providing gathering places for kids, schools, families, and social groups, research shows that well- maintained parks improve air quality and stormwater management, increase property values, and enhance a community’s overall quality of life,” a conservancy spokeswoman said in a press release about the upcoming August meetings.

According to the nonprofit and the city, there’s a $ 400 million backlog of repairs and $ 13 million annual shortfall on routine maintenance.

Meeting dates:

Aug. 8: 5: 30- 7 p. m., CoLab18, 100 S. Commons, Allegheny Center

Aug. 12: 6- 7: 30 p. m., Frick Environmental Center, 2005 Beechwood Blvd., Squirrel Hill

Aug. 15: 5: 30- 7 p. m., Magee Recreation Center, 745 Greenfield Ave., Greenfield

Aug. 18: 2- 3: 30 p. m., Frick Environmental Center

Jessie Wardarski/ Post- Gazette Naima Jones, 13, left, and Na'Jier Howard, 13, both of McKeesport, push themselves in two of the remaining kids’ swings hanging at Baxter Park in Homewood, where graffiti covers plastic slides and much of the playground equipment’s colorful paint has chipped away. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is seeking approval of a property tax increase to repair and maintain city parks that have fallen into disrepair.