This should be an interesting exercise in determining if the City of Pittsburgh understands any semblance of balanced economic development. Per the Post-Gazette:
“The Pittsburgh Planning Commission [last] Tuesday heard a proposal to rezone a portion of the [Hazelwood] neighborhood, limiting industrial land uses but also clearing the way for more housing, businesses, retail and schools.”
The P-G reminds that it was in July that City Councilwoman Barb Warwick introduced a bill to alter zoning in a portion of the neighborhood beginning at Hazelwood Green —the site of a former steel mill — and continuing along the Monongahela River toward Homestead.
“The area is currently zoned for general industrial use, which allows for manufacturing plants, warehouses and other industrial uses, along with limited office and retail space,” the P-G says. “New legislation calls for rezoning to industrial mixed use, allowing for homes, apartments, businesses and schools, and limited industrial space.”
But therein lies what very easily could become a mess – allowing only for “limited industrial space.” And credit the P-G with expounding on it:
“At [last] Tuesday’s meeting, Ms. Warwick said that existing businesses cannot be pushed out of neighborhoods when zoning rules change. However, she did say this: “We should be righting the wrongs of the past and not making them worse.”
It was a reference to past concerns of industrial companies being sited in traditionally poorer neighborhoods, never mind that these industries typically must have access to rails and rivers to survive.
“(R)epresentatives from industrial companies in Hazelwood said they were concerned about their future if the councilwoman’s bill passes.,” the P-G stressed.
Not only are there community concerns about a refuse company’s recycling operations, and possible expansion plans, the P-G dispatch notes:
“Allegheny Valley Railroad President Josh Ashbridge said his company operates about 92 acres of the Glenwood Yard, a network of railroad tracks, within the area covered by the bill. The company employs more than 1,000 people in Pittsburgh and has invested over $50 million in upgrading the yard over the past two decades, Mr. Ashbridge said.
“The proposed bill, he said, could undermine future upgrades and expansion plans, including connections between Hazelwood, Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze.
“’The Glenwood Yard is not a decaying relic of past activities,’ Mr. Ashbridge said. ‘It’s an active state-of-the-art railroad yard that’s well maintained and an engine for growth,’” the P-G reports.
But Councilwoman Warwick says what can be done with “this zoning is [to] ensure that going forward in the future, we are not putting harmful industry in a place where we really should be encouraging growth and development.”
So, who’s to define “harmful,” so-called “social-justice groups,” some of the mind that any industry in any place somehow is bad? And, in the eyes of some, what, is “industry” not “growth and development”?
Who’s to police those seeking to cut off their nose to spite their faces? And how long will it take before the government, egged on by such “social justice groups,” despite the former’s assurances, attempt to force out industrial companies that long pre-dated any such “redevelopment”?
A giant red flag in all this is that the P-G reports “representatives from some industrial companies said they were not made aware of the bill, or meetings to discuss it.”
That’s not acceptable.
The Planning Commission will consider the rezoning proposal again next week and make a recommendation to City Council, which has the final say.
Here’s to those pre-existing industries at the site being given their full say and all proper consideration. All voices and all concerns must be heard.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
