What is Pittsburgh's comprehensive plan?
A 'Pittsburgh 2050' explainer and how to get involved
By Christopher Flowers
The city is working on Pittsburgh’s plan for the next 25 years. “It could guide which neighborhoods are stabilized, strengthened or transformed,” per Pittsburgh’s Public Source.
The City Planning department will hold three public sessions in June, and will revise the plan based on feedback submitted. “The department hopes to complete a final draft by August, said Planning Director Ivette Mongalo-Winston, and present it to the City Planning Commission in the fall for a vote,” reporter Mia Hollie writes.
What is a comprehensive plan?
The Pittsburgh 2050 website is the “engagement hub for Pittsburgh’s comprehensive plan.” A comprehensive plan helps municipalities strategize how they want to develop over a set number of years — in Pittsburgh’s case, 25. There is a link on the city website to receive email updates and also participate in surveys.
There are five stages the plan will go through:
Research
Synthesis
Shared vision
Scenario planning
Plans development
Mongalo-Winston told Pittsburgh’s Public Source that the plan “will address more than what the state mandates, which has, in turn, made the process more expensive,” noting that Pittsburgh allocated $6 million, and the Heinz Endowments donated $750,000. The current comprehensive plan draft includes maps visualizing “preferred development based on overall land use, the economy, housing, mobility and green infrastructure.”
‘Neither equitable nor consistent’
Pro-Housing Pittsburgh “advocates for policy changes at the local and state level that make housing faster and less expensive to build,” and believes “abundant housing is the best path to affordable housing.” The group joined the comprehensive plan debate with a list of five principles they believe will work toward a vision that treats “every neighborhood as a place where more people can live, where daily needs can be met close to home, and where the city’s best existing urban patterns are treated as models rather than exceptions.”
More details about those five principles can be found at the Pro-Housing Pittsburgh website:
Diverse housing options should be allowed in all neighborhoods
Neighborhood amenities should be allowed in all neighborhoods
The current built environment should be conforming
Civic amenities should be allowed in all neighborhoods
All neighborhoods should have access to diverse mobility options
The city’s current vision, Pro-Housing Pittsburgh notes, “while an improvement over our current condition, misses the mark.” Conversations about growth “assumes that only a handful of neighborhoods should absorb change, while nearly half of the city is designated as low or no growth,” the site says, noting that many neighborhoods were built before modern zoning. “That approach is neither equitable nor consistent with Pittsburgh’s own history.”
Understanding the maps
The current draft plan includes seven maps “that visualize the city’s preferred development based on overall land use, the economy, housing, mobility and green infrastructure.” These will inform the “comprehensive plan’s future land use map, which can be thought of as its visual guide,” the Pittsburgh Public Source article states. “The maps typically include splashes of color that indicate what kind of development should go where, as well as how much of it. City Planning used these maps to guide the recent neighborhood discussions.”
There’s a very thorough explainer in the article, and it’s worth going out of your way to read the whole thing, and to see the maps.
The plan will include a “shared vision,” a list of objectives for how Pittsburgh should operate in the future, “based on feedback received via public workshops and surveys,” and the it will address actions that government and businesses should take.
Additional links:
Engagement Hub for Pittsburgh’s Comprehensive Plan (City of Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh Comprehensive Plan (City of Pittsburgh)
Pittsburgh’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan (Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition)
Pittsburgh’s comprehensive plan, explained (Safety 21, Carnegie Mellon University)
Make sure car-free options are part of Pittsburgh’s comprehensive plan (BikePGH)
Don’t Let Pittsburgh 2050 Become Another Broken Promise: Finish the Plan, Honor the People (Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council)
City Council moves to freeze work on Pittsburgh comprehensive plan (WESA)
Council debates Pittsburgh’s $6 million 2050 Comprehensive Plan (Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Pittsburgh’s plan for 2050 is civic engagement, climate justice and equitable change (NEXTpittsburgh)
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