Park Place Blog

Downtown Pittsburgh, 200 Ross Street, 15219

The hearing is to address a request regarding the former Cooke funeral home, located at 210 East End Avenue. Currently the funeral home has a ‘non-conforming use’ to operate as a funeral home in the residential neighborhood. The Cookes have closed the funeral home and are requesting a change to another non-conforming use: making the house into 4 units, 2 on the first floor and 2 on the second floor with 7 parking stalls in rear and 2 car garage.

The non-conformity in question is that the zoning for the block is R-2, meaning a maximum of 2 units are permitted for any new uses. Years ago, the community had fought to change the zoning to prevent any more homes from being subdivided beyond 2 units. As a result, any property owners that wish to change the number of units in their property to more than 2 units must obtain permission from the zoning board. This hearing is the request seeking such permission.

The hearing is public and those wishing to express their opinions on the request for the non-conforming use are encouraged to attend the hearing. Attendees are generally permitted to speak for 3 minutes each. Please keep in mind that regardless of where you stand on this request, remember that the Cookes are long time neighbors and residents of Park Place, and all should be respectful and polite.

UPMC/Western Psyhc is planning on building a Crisis center at 333 N. Braddock Ave.

The development group in Point Breeze is not in favor of this location. As I understand it, they feel it conflicts with the work and plans they have been doing in the immediate area of the site. They have hired a lawyer, and are protesting the approval that had already been granted by the city.

For more information, please contact Cheryl Hall (cluhall@aol.com)

The hearing is scheduled for:
August 7th, 2008 at 9:50 am at 200 Ross St., 1st floor. (Downtown)
UPMC met once in Park Place at the invitation of our city council member, Reverend Ricky V. Burgess, to present some general information about the planned facility.   We had some questions for the presenters, and I just followed up with Denise Macerelli’s offce at UPMC, but she was out on vacation. I’ll update with any information received.

Of note, is the following article, passed on by the Point Breeze development group:

Referrals to Western Psych halted
State intervenes after rash of incidents involving outpatients
Thursday, July 24, 2008
By Joe Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08206/899182-455.stm

There will be a Peebles Square Community Meeting on Monday November 19 at 7:00 PM at the Church of the Nazarene, on the corner of Peebles & Waverly. [map]

Please try to attend this meeting because there have been changes to this project since we last met in January! Continue reading Peebles Square Community Meeting Monday November 19 »

Large numbers of community members from Park Place and a host of other local community organizations and non-profits have worked hard beginning in 2005 and throughout 2006 to protect our neighborhood from bad development, winning important concessions from Walgreens and Paradise Development. The final agreement between GPPNA and the developers stipulates among other things that the developers:

• are permitted to take only the one house closest to the commercial lot on Braddock Avenue
• must purchase and make specific renovations to the remaining adjacent homes and sell them as residences
• must pay for $10,000 in street trees

You may see the details and full agreement here:
Agreement between GPPNA and Paradise

This is a great outcome for the community— we gained input over the commercial development of our own neighborhood and we also can stabilize the adjacent residential properties through direct investments and deed restrictions.

The most important factor in our success was the significant level of participation from community members at protests, community input meetings, and hearings— all of which had tremendous impact in the development’s rather political process. In addition to that critical support from our own community, we also had help from all of the following organizations which provided letters of support and/or sent representatives to city council and planning commission hearings:

• 14th Ward Democratic Committee
• ACORN
• Nine Mile Run Watershed Association
• North Point Breeze Development Corporation
• Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation
• Regent Square Civic Association
• SPUR Consulting
• Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh

Thank you to everyone for all the hard work and tremendous participation throughout this process. This conflict with our city officials and Walgreens lasted well over a year, but the final outcome is a good one for our community. We have influenced the development process into one that accommodates the specific needs of our community, strengthening an important entrance to the neighborhood. We also have shown, to our elected officials, future developers, and ourselves, the strong commitment that out friends and neighbors have for our community.

The final agreement between the Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association and Paradise Development Group has been signed. This agreement outlines what Paradise will see for the development and rezoning near Penn and South Braddock for Walgreens.

This agreement restricts the developers to the taking of only one residence in that block, and further stipulates the developers purchase the two remaining adjacent homes and complete exterior renovation and restoration of those homes within a year and place them for sale on the open market.

The developers will pay for street trees for the entire block, working in conjunction with the city.

Arbitration, if needed will be provided by the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization.

Now that the agreement has been signed, the Pittsburgh City Council has passed the preliminary vote on a revised version of the zoning that matches the agreement reached between GPPNA and Paradise Development.

Thank you to everyone for all the hard work and tremendous participation throughout this process. This conflict with our city officials and Walgreens has lasted well over a year, but the final outcome is a good one for our community. We have influenced the development process into one that accommodates the specific needs of our community, strengthening an important entrance to the neighborhood. We also have show, to our elected officials, potential developers, and our selves- the commitment our friends and neighbors have for our community.