A zoning debate that could shape Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods renewed this week with more questions than answers at a City Planning Commission meeting where a councilor presented a bill that is in direct conflict with Mayor Ed Gainey’s vision.
City Councilor Bob Charland presented his version of Inclusionary Zoning [IZ], telling commissioners that his bill is meant to slow down a different raft of zoning bills the Gainey administration announced in September but which the commission shelved in December. Charland is seeking a positive recommendation from the city body, after which council would vote.
“I’m making the case that a citywide expansion of a program developed in Lawrenceville won’t be the answer,” Charland said, referring to the current IZ designation in Polish Hill, Bloomfield, Lawrenceville and most of Oakland.
This designation requires that any housing development with 20 or more dwelling units in those neighborhoods must set aside 10% of new units for households making no more than 50% of area median income [AMI]. The mayor wants to apply these requirements citywide, along with a number of other zoning proposals. Alternatively, Charland’s proposal would raise the affordability ceiling to 99% of the AMI and allow neighborhoods to opt in or out of inclusionary zoning.
“The urgency to introduce this legislation is knowing that another IZ package is right around the corner,” Charland said. “And we wanted to make sure we had an ability to get involved in discussion, I’m hoping this slows the process down and allows us to get it right and not create a top-down policy.”
Charland told commissioners that he thought the city’s current IZ overlay failed because it didn’t create a significant amount of new housing, an interpretation that several commissioners questioned and sought clarification on. Charland also argued that the current IZ program drives up the costs of construction and that the “renting class pays for it.”
When the city requires affordable housing, Charland said, development is depressed and leads to fewer units being built while demand stays high. Citing a study from the organization Pro-Housing Pittsburgh, Charland said that non-IZ areas experienced higher construction activity than IZ places like Lawrenceville. The study criticizes the city’s current, four-neighborhood IZ overlay and informs Charland’s competing, looser version of inclusionary zoning.
“If you’re a landlord you pass those costs onto your tenants,” Charland said. “If you are a renter you’re the only class paying for a suppressed real estate market that comes from our IZ policies.”
The Pro-Housing study is “not statistically significant,” countered Commissioner Rachel O’Neill. “And it doesn’t take into account any adjustment for COVID. Some of the tables were confusing.”
The commissioners on Tuesday cautioned Charland to slow the process down and to engage more with community members across the city.
“We want a city for all. We can be better,” said Commissioner Steve Mazza, who is also a Carpenters Union leader. “I’m in construction, I want to do it right the first time, if you have to go back it costs time and aggravation and money. I implore everyone here to figure this thing out because it’s going to affect a lot of people in the city.”
Commissioner Phillip Wu expressed concern with Charland’s proposal to let neighborhoods opt in or out of the zoning.
“There’s concern that a developer might choose to do IZ units in a neighborhood where the need isn’t as great,” he said. “I think we want to come to some sort of compromise and make sure it’s written right the first time.”
But Wu also was skeptical of the mayor’s version.
“I share a lot of your concerns,” he told Charland. “Doing mandatory IZ across the city, that’s something that’s a big risk. We’ll want to do more analysis to see if that’s really the solution to the problem.”
He added, “We all share the goal of wanting to understand the problem, which is not having enough affordable housing and gentrification driving people to have to live elsewhere.”
Commission Chairwoman LaShawn Burton-Faulk also cautioned care, saying, “We need to be certain that we are a part of a solution and not a problem.”
Burton-Faulk, Commissioner Monica Ruiz and others questioned the extent of Charland’s public outreach on the various zoning proposals.
“I want to be careful we’re all talking about how critical and important this is,” Burton-Faulk said. “Rushing it because there was something else, I would have liked to have seen a different approach.”
Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.
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