Developers plan to build a third, mostly affordable residential building at Hazelwood Green, a specially planned district until now known largely for local universities’ research facilities.
The City Planning Commission on Tuesday heard Trek Development’s plans to build a 46-unit apartment building, which will also include up to 2,600 square feet of commercial space, on the corner of Eliza Street and Blair Street.
Trek Development will offer up to 24 project-based vouchers, provided by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, to future tenants of the building. About half of those vouchers will be set aside for Pittsburgh Scholar House participants, according to Janelle Kemerer, a project manager at the development company. Pittsburgh Scholar House is a nonprofit organization that supports student-parents as they complete their two- or four-year degree programs.
It’s one of three multi-family residential projects planned for the block bordered by Blair Street, Eliza Street and Lytle Street. Collectively referred to as Woodlawn Lofts, the projects are the first residential developments to be brought to the former industrial site.
“Together, they advance a larger vision for Hazelwood Green as a welcoming, seamless extension of the greater Hazelwood community — a place where diversity is not incidental but intentional,” said Austin Gelbard, the managing director for Pittsburgh of New York-based development company Tishman Speyer, which serves as the district’s master developer.
Trek Development also plans to partner with Pittsburgh Scholar House on its other building on the block, which will be a 50-unit apartment building facing Lytle Street.
Between the two buildings will sit a 30-unit modular development created by Module, a Garfield-based developer that specializes in off-site construction of housing. Module’s project is supposed to provide “missing middle” housing for prospective tenants making 80% to 120% of the area median income, according to the developer’s presentation to the commission last September.
Woodlawn Lofts comes to Hazelwood Green as a proposed zoning change that would pave the way for even more housing in Hazelwood makes its way through City Council.
The proposed change, which would affect portions of Hazelwood that sit between the specially planned district and the Monongahela River, would let most existing industrial uses remain — including basic processing facilities and manufacturing and assembly. But, crucially, the rezoning would remove the possibility for new “hazardous operations” in the area, while paving the way for a range of housing options on the stretch of land, such as community homes and multi-unit residential buildings.
Trek Development will return to the commission at a later date, when the panel will vote on the plan.
Vape shop limits proposal under review
The commission also heard amended plans to change where vape shops and other shops that mostly sell tobacco products can operate throughout the city. A bill aims to reduce young people’s exposure to tobacco products, said Morgan Martin, a legislative aide to City Councilor Bobby Wilson.
Introduced by Wilson last September, the bill originally proposed a 1,500-foot buffer between vape shops and day care facilities, other vape shops and elementary and secondary schools.
The councilor’s office amended the bill to reduce the buffer to 1,000 feet and exclude other vape shops and day care facilities from buffer requirements, a decision that Martin said would prevent the city from effectively creating a citywide ban on vape shops.
The commission typically receives 90 days to make a recommendation to City Council, but the deadline has been extended to June 5. A positive recommendation from the commission would require only a general majority of councilors to vote in favor of the bill, while a negative recommendation would require a super majority to pass.
Townhouses slated for landslide-prone Polish Hill site
The commission preliminarily approved the consolidation of multiple lots in the Polish Hill neighborhood into one, ahead of the construction of townhomes on the landslide-prone land along Herron Avenue.The request came from Upper St. Clair-based developer Seminole Land Partners, which plans to transform the mostly undeveloped land – city records show about five buildings, which Seminole plans to demolish – into what it’s calling Herron Avenue Townhomes.
The Department of City Planning reviews requests to consolidate lots, with major requests sent to the commission for a vote. A separate zoning approvals process will address the land’s proneness to landslides, said Zoning Administrator Carolyn Ristau.
Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.
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