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Originally Posted by eschaton
The Uptown rezoning is (IMHO) about as good as we could expect from the city. No parking minimums at all, big increase in allowable building heights, etc. Worst thing I can say about it is basically that they didn't immediately apply the same standards to Oakland.
Riverside zoning is more of a mixed bag. It generally increased height limits and reduced parking minimums by 50%, but also added a lot of form-based requirements which make development more expensive. Still, a step forward.
These are the only two big zoning-related things done while Peduto has been mayor.
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I'd say they are both mixed-bags. They both rely on bonus points, which is good in theory but in practice tends to enshrine architectural/planning ideals and technologies that are best practice or cool at that time. They also include things that are not practical for implementation like 50% on-site energy generation. No market-rate building in an urban context is going to accomplish that, but it sounds cool to people that are not familiar with the requisite technologies and costs.
Good things in the RIV are wider sidewalks, reduction of most setbacks, some level of riverfront protection, reduction in parking minimums, most surface parking, and street build-to line minimums.
Otherwise, the form-based requirements that are really based on little more than individual architectural tastes. The new riverfront setbacks are larger than they should be in an urban context. And it increased the by-right height limits but actually reduced the allowable height. The old UI zone had no height limits with a Special Exception, and those are granted unless a party with standing can prove that doing so would cause harm to their property. The new by-right limits are capped at 60 feet while up-to to 95 feet is allowed with bonus points. So in practice, the new zoning actually reduced height and density.
So, yeah, it's a mixed bag, but (IMHO) the city should be incentivizing greater density and more housing in both neighborhoods and neither zone change really does that. And let's not say anything abut the Baum-Center overlay. It's not really the Mayor's doing, but having attended a lot meetings I can say there are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that love city amenities but dislike the density and private investment that it takes to make those amenities possible, and those people have very outsized voices.