Three City of Pittsburgh departments will finally have an in-person home again later this month.
The OneStopPGH counter at 412 Boulevard of the Allies is set to open on Nov. 18. The building, which already hosts the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority and Housing Authority, will be a centralized home base for the Departments of Permits, Licenses and Inspections, Mobility and Infrastructure and the zoning division of City Planning,
Nine customer service desks line the waiting area in the newly-renovated room. Pittsburghers will be able to apply for permits and planning applications there. The process governs building and development, business licenses, trade licenses, general contracting, and more.
The three departments had previously all been located in separate offices along Ross Street, and employees were moved to remote work at the start of the pandemic. Applications have stayed online ever since in preparation for the move to the new building.
Customer service manager Gabrielle Johnston says she’s glad to see the departments all in one place. She expects it will be more convenient for city employees as well as residents.
“We’re all going to be in the same building. Different floors, but we’re going to see each other more often,” she said. “I think it just improves coordination because, for example, there are some permits that you could apply for, some construction that you could be doing, some development you could be doing that would involve all three departments."
Moving forward, she said, residents can still use the online portal to access the departments’ services. The in-person counter will not accept cash, but it will accept checks, credit and debit cards, and money orders. Residents can sign up for an appointment online, or walk in and wait.
“We worked really hard to make (the online portal) efficient and user friendly, but we do want to obviously reopen the in-person counter for people who need that kind of assistance as well,” she said.
The counter’s opening is a long time coming. The project was slowed by the COVID pandemic after the city under former Mayor Bill Peduto bought the building in 2018 for $40 million — a move that has been criticized by some local officials.
As of July this year, the city had spent around $10 million on renovations, according to the controller's office.
“The pandemic changed the whole dynamics of where we were going to be able to move in,” Mayor Ed Gainey’s spokesperson Olga George noted. “It's really great to have everyone in the building, and also making sure that the OneStopPGH in-person counter is going to be open.”
