City seeks input on riverfront development

Bike trails and boathouses, office buildings and residences are elbowing their way onto Pittsburgh’s once heavily industrialized riverfronts, and the city has drafted new zoning rules aimed at better managing the rapidly changing riparian scene.

The city’s planning department will hold three open houses this week to take public comments about a draft land use zoning plan for 35 miles of riverfront along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers and touching 19 city neighborhoods.

The first meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at 517 27th St., in the SouthSide Works, with a planning department presentation at 6:30 p.m.

“We want to make sure to give citizens an opportunity to take a look at our draft zoning language and make suggestions that will improve it,” said Andrea Lavin Kossis, the planning department’s riverfront development coordinator.

Ms. Kossis said comments from the meetings will be used to refine a final draft zoning document for formal public comment in January, followed by a city Planning Commission review in February. The final zoning changes would be subject to City Council review and approval.

“There’s a ton of industrial zoning, and while we can make some work using the variance process, we want to craft new zoning that’s responsive to the new uses,” Ms. Kossis said.

The new zoning rules are also needed, Ms. Kossis said, to balance new and existing land uses with city goals of increased riverfront access and open space, trail systems, and environmental quality.

“The new zoning recognizes the unique ecological challenges of our riverfronts and that the rivers are defining public assets,” she said. “But we are not treating all 35 miles of riverfront the same. We understand that different areas have different character and uses now, even if their histories are similar.”

The second open house is an all-day affair, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday at 805 Liberty Ave., Downtown, with planning office presentations at 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

The third is from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore, with a planning department presentation at 6:30 p.m.

The same presentations on the draft zoning plan will be provided at each open house. Ms. Kossis said about 150 people have signed up to attend the open houses, although advance registration is not required.

For more information about the draft zoning plan or to RSVP for the open houses, visit: https://pghriverfrontzoning.com/