On the banks of the Allegheny River is Pittsburgh’s North side, on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, as seen from Mt. Washington. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
An emerging plan would aim to weave many neighborhood plans and fill gaps for a first-ever comprehensive plan for Pittsburgh’s future. To make it work, planners “need to hear from everybody.”
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Pittsburgh’s planners aim to get input from at least 30,000 Pittsburghers — nearly 1 in 10 city residents — on a comprehensive blueprint for the next 25 years. To get that input, they intend to offer grants to groups, and show up where people congregate.
City officials and a steering committee made up of civic and community leaders welcomed guests from all over Pittsburgh to an event Thursday evening launching the Pittsburgh 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
Though many Pittsburgh neighborhoods have created their own plans, this comprehensive citywide plan would be the first of its kind.
City Planning Director Jamil Bey said the goal is to connect those neighborhood plans into a more comprehensive plan with citywide consensus.
“Neighborhoods don’t exist in isolation,” Bey said. “So this connects those plans. We are committed to honoring and respecting those plans and tying them into this comprehensive plan.”
Bey said the administration wants every resident in the city to have the chance to weigh in, adding that city leaders “need to hear from everybody.”
The city plans to seek resident feedback in a number of novel ways, including by encouraging them to join working groups and by organizing two “summers of engagement” this year and next.
Summers of engagement to combat perennial input challenge
According to LaTrenda Sherrill, principal and lead consultant at Common Cause Consultants, the summers of engagement will involve giving out “90 mini grants” to support residents in hosting community gatherings, talks and festivals where people can discuss the comprehensive plan.
“It’s really an opportunity to get the information out to folks and continue to incentivize participation from individuals who are already working hard for this city,” Sherrill said.
In 2023, Pittsburgh City Council approved a $2,645,000 contract with Common Cause Consultants to support the planning process. In early 2024, council approved another pact, of $3,255,000, with HR&A Advisors & Urban American City to assist in the process.
According to Assistant Director of Strategic Planning Sharonda Whatley, the $1,000 mini grants will be available to community organizations and residents who “have traditionally been left out of the typical comp plan process.”
Whatley said city officials are also aware of “at least 45 festivals happening across the city over the summer” that they hope to participate in.
“We want to meet people where they are and continue to engage people in a celebratory way,” Whatley added.
Sherrill said an application portal will emerge “later on in the spring” through which people can apply for the mini grants.
During a presentation Thursday, Bey and Whatley said the planning process will be “iterative, and driven by community.”
The current planning phase focuses on “developing a Just Pittsburgh framework and increasing awareness of the plan across Pittsburgh,” according to the presentation by Bey and Whatley. The city will continue collecting community feedback through meetings, events and online surveys through September 2025, Bey and Whatley said, and will develop planning scenarios through “a collaborative process with community members” between August 2025 and April 2026.
Christine Mondor, co-chair of the comprehensive plan steering committee, said the team “has been very deliberate in making sure that all neighborhoods and all types of Pittsburgh citizens hear their voices in this plan.”
It’s perennially difficult to get public input on city plans and development. During a Jan. 28 City Planning Commission hearing on proposed changes to zoning rules, city officials showed a slide indicating that they’d held 18 community meetings on the topic since last summer. Numerous speakers, though, said they had not been aware of those meetings, and had relatively recently become aware of the proposals.
The perception of a lack of public input can breed mistrust.
Marciana Rossi of Sheraden told the planning commission last Tuesday that her neighborhood has changed significantly over the years without resident’s participation.
“It sounds like another land grab to me because I’ll be damned if anybody in my neighborhood knows about this meeting. All of these things are secret. Don’t be so secretive.”
Bella Markovitz is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at bella@publicsource.org.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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