Important Upcoming Meetings at the Village Collaborative, East Liberty's only Registered Community Organization!

 On Monday, April 18, 2022, the Village Collaborative will host two development activities meetings for important projects in the East Liberty neighborhood. As the neighborhood's only registered community organization (RCO)*, developers and property owners who are seeking approvals from Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historic Review Commission, and Art Commission are required to present their projects at a publicly advertised development activities meeting (DAM)* least 30 days in advance of the public hearing at which it will be reviewed and voted on. 

Review of Enright Park Master Plan and Design

At 6 PM on Monday, April 18, 2022, the Village Collaborative will host a presentation by the design team, including the City of Pittsburgh, about the proposed reconstruction of Enright Park. You can learn more about the project and process to date on the City's EngagePGH website, including seeing the most recent designs for the park. 

Residents of the Enright Park neighborhood have been engaged with the process and taken part in the design. To the best of our knowledge, the Village Collaborative has not previously participated in conversations about the Enright Park redevelopment. To join the DAM meeting, please log-in to Zoom using this link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88559840 494

 

Review of the Proposed Redevelopment of the May Stern - Kelly Strayhorn Block 

Following the 6 PM meeting about Enright Park, at 7 PM there will be presentation and meeting with the developers of the May Stern - Kelly Strayhorn block, located in the 5900 block of Penn Avenue. Technically, this meeting is not a DAM session and does not, to our understanding, have the same requirements of a City-mandated DAM, as the application for this redevelopment was submitted BEFORE the RCO legislation went into effect in 2021. 

However, it is equally critical that East Liberty community members attend and learn more about the proposal as there is then a Planning Commission hearing on the redevelopment on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 2 PM (link to Planning Commission agenda and the full application).

You can join this meeting by using the same link for the Enright Park meeting here. 

Please stay tuned for more information and updates! We know that we have been exceedingly quiet lately - the pandemic has taken its toll on our abilities to keep up with everything that is going on - but we are working on ramping back up so that community members can be better informed about what is happening in and around East Liberty. 

*link to information on the City's website about Registered Community Organizations and Development Activity Meetings

Help us meet our grassroots fundraising goal today!

Proposed plan for the reconfiguration of Enright Park. Please help us make sure that the park is fully funded and rebuilt in a timely manner!

Help us raise the funds to ensure that Enright Park will be rebuilt and provisions made for affordable housing when redevelopment happens!

We have just shy of two weeks left in our fundraising campaign. Can you pitch in $10, $15, or $20 to help us reach our goal? We are just $1,604 shy meeting a goal of $5,000 in GRASSROOTS COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING. Meeting that goal will allow us to unlock a full $5,000 in additional matching funds.

Please consider a contribution today!

https://ioby.org/project/save-public-park-disappearing

IMPORTANT UPDATE! (aren't they all important though?)

image via Tribune Review. View of new development from Enright Park. New South Saint Clair Street to left; extended Eva Street to the right.

Last week, we got word that the judge at Orphan's Court APPROVED the City's filing to swap a portion of Enright Park with the developer in order to reconfigure the park and support the development. You can read some of the coverage here in the Tribune Review (thanks Bob!).

We do support this land swap, and agreed to it in the many many months long negotiations and mediation that took place back in 2017 in order to settle the litigation that developed out of the developer's appeal of the Planning Commission's rejection of their revised Preliminary Land Development Plan.  

HOWEVER, we have MANY outstanding concerns that have not been addressed and we are urging the Mayor and City Council to consider these issues prior to a final decision. 

The land swap is now sitting before City Council for consideration with a final vote next week. Prior to a vote taking place, we are requesting the following of the City, and have requested an opportunity to meet with Mayor Peduto to discuss further. Neither of the two key components that were agreed to as part of the 2017 Consent Order that were critical to getting support from our community have been addressed - how will the park be reconstructed (and on what timeline) and how will funding generated for affordable housing by the development be disbursed with real COMMUNITY input?

Park Reconfiguration

Regarding the Park, we are requesting a fully transparent plan for how the land swap will occur and the timeline for it. Of particular note, we want to know:

• What is the exact timeline for the developer to take ownership of the park? 

• What steps will be taken to ensure that public access to the park remains in place as long as physically feasible? This is particularly important as the portion of the park that is being transferred to the developer includes the children's playground, two sets of swings, and a basketball court, as well as most of the grassy lawn area used for informal recreation. Cutting off access to these amenities prior to it being deemed necessary for construction is unacceptable.

• Will the developer sign a temporary easement agreement that provides public access to the park site until such as time as construction deems it necessary to cease that access? What does that construction timeline look like and how will it impact quality of life for the residents?

• How will the community be given the opportunity to celebrate and say goodbye to a place (the park) that has been extremely important, as well as mourn the loss of the trees that are a critical characteristic of the park?*

• What steps is the City taking (and on what timeline) to advance the new park design and ensure that funding is in place for the reconstructed park? Will the Mayor commit money in the 2020 City budget towards both park design and reconstruction? 

 

Affordable Housing 

• What is the City's commitment to follow through on the agreement to expand the TRID** and make affordable housing with community input a priority? This was a key linchpin to our entire agreement to support the consent order and we have yet to see any forward progress.

•  How is the City going to engage community members (both residents AND former residents) in developing a community plan and strategy for affordable housing that is truly collaborative and not only in the hands of a chose few? See also this recent Public Source article: Who Is the Community?.

Construction Timeline and Community Impacts

• What is the overall construction schedule for the development site? The community needs to have an opportunity to review and understand the construction management plan, and the impacts that it will have. 

• Of particular note are the impacts on both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It should be noted that Penn and Negley is a significant transit stop in all directions, and also serves a high number of school students. How will construction impact these community members? What plans are being put in place to ensure their safety and security?

* Author Dolores Hayden in Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History writes poignantly about the importance of communities having the opportunity to celebrate and mourn the loss of the places that mark their history. The history of East Liberty's urban renewal is particularly checkered and troubling, given the myriad of racist practices that went into the programs that created Penn Circle and the adjacent housing complexes that have since been dismantled [and one might also posit continue to this day***]. However, that legacy is still part of our community narrative and for us to pretend that these places mean nothing and are merely one transactional relationship after another it to ignore the history of the place and to deny the realities of the people who have inhabited it. 

** TRID = Transit Revitalization Investment District. It is a mechanism that allows taxes from a development site to be diverted from the general funds (and, gulp, school district - yes it may be shooting oneself in the foot but it's an available mechanism) to be dedicated to fund infrastructure projects, such as site utilities and streets and parks, within a certain distance of the East Liberty transit stations. In this case, the community requested that the radius of the TRID be expanded in order to create opportunity within 3/4 of a mile (walking distance) of the former Penn Plaza site. It was also requested that there be a committee overseeing the distribution of those funds, which would include representatives from the impacted community groups. The City agreed to support this, but no forward motion has been made.  

*** See also There Are Black People in the Future . You'll be glad that you did. There's good stuff happening amidst all of it.

Fundraising for the NEXT Round of Legal Struggles

Please make a contribution to this fundraiser that Bloomfield Garfield Corporation is hosting in order to raise legal funds to ensure that we really DO have a park in our community once the former Penn Plaza site is redeveloped!

This legal fund will allow groups to go to court and ensure, when the new retail-office complex at former Penn Plaza Apartments opens, there is an Enright Park sitting next to it, with unfettered access for the public. http://ioby.org/Enright

the project

The battle to preserve Enright Park in East Liberty continues!
This fall, the fight will shift to Orphan’s Court, a division of Common Pleas Court, as a judge hears the City’s petition to authorize the exchange of land with Pennley Park South, Inc., that will give them the final piece they need to construct their large office-retail development in East Liberty. But at what cost to the public?

Nowhere in the City’s petition will there be a guarantee that a new, reconfigured park will emerge as the first phase of the commercial development comes out of the ground. Nor will it ensure that when the park is finished, the public will enjoy unfettered access to it. And we're still waiting to see when and how a community process is put in place to oversee the use of tax dollars generated by the new development in funding affordable housing nearby. It’s a complex set of terms and conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take place.

To be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the interests of the larger public, and that takes money.

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC), together with Enright Park Neighborhood Association, are creating a legal fund for just that purpose, and we need your support.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the BGC so that the public is not left holding the short straw when all of the dust has settled.

For more background on what’s at stake with this fight, please visit the website, enrightpark.org.

Thank you in advance for your donation to this important cause!

the steps

To be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the interests of the larger public, and that takes money. Once the Money is in hand it will go directly to the attorneys who are briefed and ready for the case.

why we're doing it

We are doing this because Parks are important. Nowhere in the City’s petition will there be a guarantee that a new, reconfigured park will emerge as the first phase of the commercial development comes out of the ground. Nor will it ensure that when the park is finished, the public will enjoy unfettered access to it. It’s a complex set of terms and conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take place.

Updates: Letter to City Council about Eva Street

Bloomfield Garfield Corporation

Enright Park Neighborhood Association

Friendship Community Group

Pittsburgh, PA

September 9, 2019

Members, Pittsburgh City Council

City-County Building, 5^th Floor

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Re: Council Bill #2019-1910 Resolution Vacating a Portion of Eva Street

Dear Members of Pittsburgh City Council:

The Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, Enright Park Neighborhood Association, and Friendship Community Group wish to reiterate their longstanding opposition to the privatization of the planned reconstruction of Eva Street, of which this proposed street vacation will be a part. We therefore formally object to Council Bill #2019-1910.

As the attached May 12 letter to Mayor Peduto indicates, our opposition to the privatization of Eva Street centers upon the need to provide unimpeded public access to the reconfigured Enright Park, which the proposed Eva Street will front for most of its length. As we stated in our May 12 letter:

Regardless of easement agreements or other legal covenants for the new street (which we note were not contained in the final land development plan), management and control of Eva Street by a private entity creates a foreseeable risk that park-goers and others will be subject to arbitrary rules pertaining to their use of the street. Further, if such rules are enforced by a private security force, there will be many opportunities for careless or deliberate abuse of such authority.

Despite our repeated requests for the text of the proposed easements which will govern public use of the privatized Eva Street, they have not been shared with us to date. We regret that the planning process for this street privatization has been opaque and closed to participation by community stakeholders. We wish to strongly reiterate, however, that no easements or other legal covenants can substitute for the rights of city residents and others to freely use a street policed and maintained by the City of Pittsburgh.

We note that the new Eva Street will be built using public subsidies through the East Liberty Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID). As our May 12 letter indicates, we are unpersuaded by the reasons that the developers of Pennley Park South have used to justify privatization of Eva Street: maintenance of underground stormwater infrastructure and periodic use of the street for special events are both activities which are accommodated elsewhere in Pittsburgh on and under public streets. We see no reason to make an exception here.

The risks of arbitrary private management and policing of this important new piece of city infrastructure will extend far into the future. We urge that City Council reject this proposed partial street vacation and support construction of the new Eva Street as a public right of way.

Sincerely,

Bloomfield Garfield Corporation

Enright Park Neighborhood Association

Friendship Community Group

The Proposed Park Plan

Just so that it is clear and easy to find, we wanted to post the proposed park reconfiguration here so that folks can understand it in full.

 (click here for the full size version)

Also, although it doesn't appear on this drawing, there is a plan for park improvements that are part of this project. You can see the preliminary concepts from the presentation that was made to Art Commission last year (below). There is further work and refinement to be done to the designs, but the intention is that this would move in parallel with the development. Here are the designs as of last summer (2018), courtesy Studio Brian Haynes. A few observations:

• Yes, we lose the majority of the trees in the park. But we get a park that is better connected for everyone and no longer hemmed in by a private developer on three sides. 
• We go from two full basketball courts to one and a half. Based on observations over the past fifteen plus years, we do not foresee this as a problem. Most use is by groups playing half court games, or by kids using the courts for bike riding and scootering.

Here you can see the existing park outline and features overlaid with reconfigured park area. Link to enlarge here.

 This is the proposed design of the park based on the new configuration. Link to enlarge here.

 

And a bird's eye view of the park from above South Euclid (the new development are the tall blocks in the background). Link to enlarge here.

We'd love to get your thoughts on the designs and what should be changed/adjusted as it moves forward. Please leave comments below or email us at info@enrightpark.org.

 

Street Vacations, Public Hearings, oh my!

If you live in the vicinity of Enright Park(let) you most likely received multiple letters from the City of Pittsburgh this weekend regarding two proposed street vacations. We thought that it would be good to try to explain what these mean so that everyone can make an informed decision about whether they support or do not support these proposals.

our kitchen counter Friday afternoon...

First, what on earth is a street vacation??? For this, we go to Wikipedia:

"A street vacation, also known as an alley vacation or vacation of public access, is a type of easement in which a government transfers the right-of-way of a public street, highway or alley to a private property owner."

This means that the City is considering legislation to vacate two portions of streets to the owner of the former Penn Plaza site, LG Realty (also sometimes referred to as "Pennley Place South" or "PPS" which is the name of the development entity for the site). 

So what portions of what streets?

Council Bill #2019-1911: Resolution Vacating a Portion of Penn Avenue and South Euclid Avenue

The first proposed vacation is for the speed lane at the intersection of Penn Avenue and South Euclid, aka Penn Circle West. You know, the right turn lane that currently allows drivers to by-pass the light and keep moving onto South Euclid, generally at a high rate of speed. Eliminating the speed lane and reintroducing a more traditional intersection design has been discussed for some time, and has been part of the strategy for deconstructing Penn Circle for at least ten years. There is no surprise here and representatives from the neighborhood have endorsed this proposal. 

Council Bill #2019-1910: Resolution Vacating a Portion of Eva Street

The second proposed vacation is for an 8-foot wide section of Eva Street to be vacated to the developer. This has NOT previously been made known to the neighborhood, and is part of the developer's intended plan to build a new PRIVATELY owned Eva Street to replace the existing Eva Street. A few key points here:

• Neighborhood representatives HAVE endorsed the proposed reconfiguration of Eva Street in order to provide greater access to the park and to improve overall neighborhood connectivity (see the diagram below to understand a bit better). 
• However, neighborhood representatives have been extremely vocal and clear that the New Eva Street MUST be a publicly owned street, albeit with easements to the developer who intends to use it for storm water retention systems below. 

Why do we feel that Eva Street must be public? For several reasons:

• To provide continued public access to the neighborhood that it connect;
• To provide continued public access to the park; and
• To ensure that the public realm of the neighborhood is not eroded by private ownership and control over assets that should be owned by the citizens.

While the developer has attempted to reassure us and the City that they will not limit access, we are frankly concerned as to any additional consolidation of site control by a private entity in the neighborhood. Remember, much of the reason we are in this mess to begin with was site consolidation and the privatization of public rights-of-way (aka the elimination of the street grid) back in the 1960s. It may seem "minor" to privatize another street, but it sets up a move towards increased privatization that is detrimental to both the near future and the long term for the neighborhood.

(click here to see full size image)

So what does this mean? If you support the vacation of these streets, by all means, write a letter of support! If you have concerns or are opposed to one or both of these proposals, please write to City Council! Letters can be sent to the attention of the City Clerk, 5th Floor, City County Building, 412 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

And in either case PLEASE plan to come to the public hearing. The hearing will be held:

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

3:00 PM

City Council Chambers

5th Floor, City-County Building

412 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

We will post the full text of the legislation once we get the chance to get it all scanned, but feel free to visit the City Council's Legislative Information Center at: pittsburghpa.gov/clerk/lic.