Urban Redevelopment Authority seeks future for Allegheny River shoreline

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_622550.html

Urban Redevelopment Authority seeks future for Allegheny River shoreline

By Jeremy Boren, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A 12-foot-tall cinder block wall prevents Hector Corante and his pit bull, Caesar, from reaching the banks of the Allegheny River a few hundred feet from their Lawrenceville rowhouse.

It's one of many man-made reminders to shoreline city dwellers that warehouses, vacant lots and rusting scrap yards dominate a roughly 6.45-mile strip of riverfront stretching from Downtown to Highland Park.

"It would be great if there was at least some access to the river. A lot of people here feel that way," said Corante, 41, a commercial photographer who's working with a group of local dog owners to set aside land under the 40th Street Bridge for an off-leash dog park.

Corante's ideas and those of many others will become part of a public study set to begin today when the Urban Redevelopment Authority meets with landowners and neighborhood representatives on the site of a once-rotting Tippins International Inc. steel fabrication plant near the 62nd Street Bridge.

"It's a call to action to have the community become engaged," said URA spokeswoman Megan Stearman.

Instead of developing an isolated housing development on the cleared 22-acre site — as the authority did at Washington's Landing in the 1990s — officials are gathering input from businesses owners and residents who want to rehabilitate the riverfront, said authority Executive Director Rob Stephany, who lives in Lawrenceville.

"It has some sweet spots," he said about the land along the Allegheny. "They could become anything from a tree-lined street that ends with a parking lot where you can put your kayak in the water to single-family homes that front onto the river."

The URA last month agreed to pay up to $350,000 to urban planning firm Perkins Eastman to develop a master plan for the 6.45-mile stretch. It's expected to take about a year.

The area contains about 544 parcels owned by dozens of companies, individuals and the city.

But URA officials plan to focus on recommendations from an advisory committee that includes representatives from large riverfront landholders including real estate giant The Buncher Co., trucking company Pitt Ohio Express, development firm The Rubinoff Co., the Regional Industrial Development Corp. and others.

Vacant and littered lands along the river aren't surprising, given Pittsburgh's lack of planning, said Charles L. Hammel III, president of Pitt-Ohio Express.

"There are some property owners along the river that haven't done anything with their property because of a lack of a plan," he said. "They say, 'I'm not going to do anything because I'm afraid of what will go up around me.'"

Hammel, who co-owns the Cork Factory Lofts, said he hopes to see a pedestrian trail that would link existing sections. Boat docks could bring patrons to restaurants, once they're built, he said.

"Timing is everything. Pittsburgh had to come a long way before the rivers would become useful for recreation simply because they were not clean," Hammel said.

Political will has come a long way, as well. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said March 9 that rehabbing the city's Allegheny riverfronts is part of his 11-point plan to usher in Pittsburgh's "third renaissance."

Craig Dunham, a Rubinoff principal, said the planning is vital to Pittsburgh's growth.

"We think it's exciting," said Dunham, a member of the advisory committee. "The river is an amenity that many other regions have already capitalized on."

Cincinnati is building its 45-acre Riverfront Park along the Ohio River between its sports stadiums; Nashville officials are trying to fund construction of a park on the banks of the Cumberland River after conducting a $450,000 study over 16 months; and Ashland, Ky., last year started a $10.2 million project to build Veterans Riverfront Park on the Ohio River.

Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip, said whatever happens on the Allegheny should fit the historic character of the Strip District's homegrown markets.

"I'd like to see something unique," she said. "I'd hate to see another South Side Works plop down there."

Jack Benoff, president of Solara Ventures, is building 56 residential units in the Strip's old Otto Milk Building. Twenty-six are sold. Improvements along the Allegheny could attract buyers, he said.

"Whatever they do is better than what's there right now," he said. "I think the key thing when I talk to our buyers is they like the idea of being able to ride their bike right out their door onto a trail."