An Allegheny County judge has ruled in a North Side zoning dispute, saying a proposed project to build eight affordable, single-family homes should not have been granted a zoning variance.
The ruling is a victory for the neighbors who took issue with the project and a setback for the nonprofits attempting to build the homes: City of Bridges Community Land Trust and neighborhood group Fineview Citizens Council.
The groups plan to push ahead with the project in a modified form, but the ruling from Common Pleas Judge Mary McGinley means they will have additional costs and delays, they said.
“It will be significantly more [expensive],” said Ed Nusser, executive director of City of Bridges. He estimated the change will add another $120,000 in costs to the project and at least a year of additional time for fundraising, more engineering, and additional zoning review.
The organizations still plan to build eight new homes on Lanark Street in Fineview, across the street from Fineview Park. All the homes will now be detached; the initial plans included mostly attached homes (with no spaces in between them). The two neighbors who brought the legal case had said they wanted to see more space in between the houses. Zoning requirements call for only detached homes there. The neighbors, Candace Cain and Ellen Mazo, also objected to the proposed location for some of the project’s off-street parking. Neither could be reached for comment on the ruling.
The homes will be affordable for people earning less than 80% of area median income: roughly $75,000 annually for a family of four.
Both City of Bridges and Fineview Citizens Council have said the case is reflective of broader problems with zoning that can make it difficult to build needed housing, as the zoning code largely favors building detached, single-family houses over other types of denser housing.
“We don't need more suburban sprawl, but the zoning code forces us to consider more suburban sprawl,” said project supporter Jon Hanrahan, a Fineview resident and vice president of the Fineview Citizens Council.
There are already dozens of existing attached homes in Fineview, which were built in an era before the current zoning code, Hanrahan said.
“We are incredibly frustrated with this decision, obviously, with delay and delay and delay,” he said.
