It will be another two weeks before Pittsburgh’s Planning Commission makes a decision on the proposed Oakland Crossings development. During a 60-day hiatus imposed by Mayor Ed Gainey, significant changes have been made to the project, and commission members said they need more time to understand their effects.
For the last two months, Gainey’s administration has met with residents, community groups, and the developer to resolve concerns surrounding the controversial development. Gainey announced on Monday that he and his staff had reached a deal with Walnut Capital, and proposed amendments to the legislation that would govern the project.
Because those changes, and a related public benefit agreement, became public just 24 hours before the meeting, Planning Commission Chair Christine Mondor said to members, “We are probably the least knowledgeable about what’s in front of us right now.”
While the members voted to postpone their vote for two weeks, Mondor noted that Tuesday’s presentations from the administration and Walnut Capital suggested that the changes seemed “to be on the right track [toward] meeting concerns we had the first time through.”
The original plan for Oakland Crossings was a nearly 18-acre development that would remake an area around the Boulevard of the Allies. In addition to a grocery store at an old Quality Inn site and possible work at a former Isaly’s site, Walnut Capital proposed multistory buildings along Halket Street, McKee Place, and Louisa Street, as well as infrastructure improvements to connect the northern and southern sides of the boulevard. A bespoke zoning district crafted just for the project would have allowed for sweeping land use changes in the area.
Under the proposed changes, Oakland Crossings would shrink to 13 acres, and only involve Halket Street, the Isaly’s site, and the Quality Inn site.
Walnut Capital would be entitled to lower building heights than originally proposed, and committed to new affordability standards. In buildings with 20 or more units, 10 percent would be affordable to people with lower incomes. Company officials say they will use project-based vouchers provided by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh to ensure those units are affordable for a minimum of 35 years. In addition, Walnut Capital committed to hiring union labor, and dedicating $250,000 to a workforce training effort.
Driving the changes is a new zoning classification, called “Urban Center-Mixed Use,” that will help ensure the new development blends in with the existing neighborhood character. The proposed language is patterned along the lines of draft zoning recommendations compiled during the creation of the Oakland Plan, a city-led neighborhood planning process that has been in the works for more than two years.
One of the persistent criticisms of Oakland Crossings has been that the zoning changes Walnut Capital sought would allow it to bypass the community’s own attempts to define a vision for itself.
Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said the new zoning text is a more “tailored” proposal that “meets the needs of the proposed developer but does so in a way that secures additional protections and benefits for the public.”
City Councilor Bruce Kraus agreed, and on Tuesday asked members to send the legislation back to council with a positive recommendation.
“These changes are substantive,” he said. “They are in the best interest of the project and in the best interest in the neighborhood of Oakland.”
Also on Tuesday the Planning Commission heard initial presentations on two other major projects, one from UPMC and another from Duquesne University.
UPMC Presbyterian Hospital plans to build a 17-story glass tower with 636 private patient rooms, and a 450-space parking garage.
Duquesne University also plans to build a College of Osteopathic Medicine in the city’s Uptown neighborhood.
Those projects will also go back to the Planning Commission in two weeks for hearing and action.
