Penguins pitch proposal for Hunt Armory
Team asks zoning board for permission to place temporary ice rink at Shadyside venue
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ plan to install a temporary rink at Hunt Armory in Shadyside took center ice Thursday, with the team outlining measures to address neighborhood concerns, mostly about parking.
During a 90-minute hearing before the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, the team touted the seasonal ice rink as a way to become more invested in the community, particularly in connecting “to potential players of color and neighborhoods.”
Kevin Acklin, the Penguins’ chief operating officer, noted there are currently no publicly accessible ice rinks within city limits.
“If you’re a kid in the city and you want to learn the game, you’ve got to find a way to get up to Cranberry or 10 or 15 miles away from the city. So this is all about our charitable efforts to become more connected to residents in the city of Pittsburgh,” he said.
“This armory is uniquely situated in the East End, very close to public transportation, where we can reach kids in Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, Larimer, and Garfield and bring them into the program.”
The proposed use would require approval of a special exception from the zoning board because the rink would be a change from one nonconforming use to another.
If the Penguins get the go-ahead, the 200-foot-by-85-foot rink would be open for public skating, practices, games and programs from Nov. 26 until March 1.
The team plans to use the rink to support its own equitable and inclusive hockey programs for city youths, such as the Learn to Play program and the Willie O’Ree Academy.
Beyond that, the facility would be used for practices, games, community programming and public skating, which would be limited to Friday evenings and weekends.
After two public meetings and discussions with stakeholders near the historic Armory on Emerson Street, the Penguins plan to shut down the rink no later than 10 p.m. each day rather than 11 p.m., as originally planned.
New hours would range from 4 to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, though Sundays could be limited due to church services.
The Penguins estimate practices and programs will draw only 25 to 50 people at a time to the armory, while games would boost the number to 125.
They believe the biggest impact would be the four public skating sessions available each week to the public, which could generate as many as 200 people at a time to the facility.
To mitigate parking concerns, the Penguins have secured agreements with the Calvary Episcopal Church near the Armory for 50 spaces on all days except Sunday and with the Eastside Bond parking garage for at least 120 spaces.
They estimate they will have a surplus of parking for visitors even on the Sundays when the church lot isn’t available.
The team also plans to operate a shuttle bus to and from those sites if visitors don’t want to make the short walk, estimated at three minutes from the church and seven minutes from the garage.
It also will be posting “no parking on the street” signs around the armory and directing patrons to either the church or the garage. For practices and games, there will be a
drop-off area outside of the armory for players.
“This is a charitable exercise that we’re doing, so we don’t need to pack people in here and charge admission for ice. We’re paying for everything,” Mr. Acklin said.
“The idea is if you compare it to suburban rinks that have people showing up and parking all over the place, we’re going to be very much in control of everything that happens inside of this building and everything that’s done here for the purpose of advancing the program that we talked about.”
The mitigation measures didn’t appease everyone.
Caroline West, a representative of Franklin West, which owns more than 25 apartment properties in the armory area, testified she doesn’t believe the parking concerns are being ade-quately addressed.
She expressed skepticism that visitors would opt to pay for parking at the garage instead of trying to find a place to park for free on a street closer to the armory.
“Eastside Bond, it’s inconvenient, not appropriate, too far away, and there’s nothing that’s preventing people from parking right on the streets closer,” she said.
While Grant Friday, a Walnut Street resident, liked the Penguins’ plan, he also had concerns about parking. He urged the team to require visitors to sign in and state where they parked as a means of forcing them to use the garage or church lot.
The plan won the support of the Shadyside Action Coalition, with a representative stating the Penguins had addressed concerns about parking, pedestrian safety, after-session noise and the public skates.
“We’re excited as a neighborhood to learn from this temporary use of how this could then impact future uses, what works, what doesn’t work and what can then be adjusted to make this facility really a neighborhood and citywide asset,” Kevin Kunak said.
The Penguins expect to spend more than $1 million on the temporary rink and associated investments. The team is receiving financial support from the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association.
“We’ve really designed this to be minimally impactful,” Mr. Acklin said.
“We’ve programmed this in a way that we’d like to test this out for this season, and if it works, then we can talk about the future. But this is a temporary installation, which is all about us becoming a better partner to advance social equity in the city of Pittsburgh.”
The zoning board will have up to 45 days to make its ruling.