PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

12 stories!!!! That just can't happen in the Strip -- too tall for Pittsburgh! Mondor & Co. will shut this down... unless of course the developer commits to establishing an official Equity District or some other BS on which her firm can "consult".

Mondor is now off the commission. Burton-Faulk is now the chair, and O'Neill is the vice chair. They both seem pretty lowkey. Neither have a design background. Burton-Falk has been on the commission for awhile, having gotten involved originally due to her role in Manchester Citizens Corporation. O'Neill is a real estate lawyer at Reed Smith.

Watching the more recent presentations, Jean Holland Dick is the only board member I find completely objectionable, since she basically seems to exist on the board just to be one of those annoying Oakland NIMBY homeowners who thinks everything that happens in Oakland needs to be oriented towards her. She's in her 80s, and I have to presume this is her last term.

The remainder of the board is (from what I can tell) 100% different from the Peduto years:

Dina Blackwell - Has no industry experience, leads a community organization in Homewood

Monica Ruiz - Has no industry experience, leads Casa San Jose

Peter Quintanilla - Design director at Baker

Mel Ngami - Young black architect at GBBN

Phillip Wu - Urban planner at Environmental Planning and Design

Steve Mazza - 25-year member of the Carpenters

On the whole, there seems to be more of a focus on getting stakeholders across the city, and less on the Commission as a group of nitpicky architects and urban planners. Presumably they have to rely more on DCP staff as a result.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Mondor is now off the commission. Burton-Faulk is now the chair, and O'Neill is the vice chair. They both seem pretty lowkey. Neither have a design background. Burton-Falk has been on the commission for awhile, having gotten involved originally due to her role in Manchester Citizens Corporation. O'Neill is a real estate lawyer at Reed Smith.

Watching the more recent presentations, Jean Holland Dick is the only board member I find completely objectionable, since she basically seems to exist on the board just to be one of those annoying Oakland NIMBY homeowners who thinks everything that happens in Oakland needs to be oriented towards her. She's in her 80s, and I have to presume this is her last term.

The remainder of the board is (from what I can tell) 100% different from the Peduto years:

Dina Blackwell - Has no industry experience, leads a community organization in Homewood

Monica Ruiz - Has no industry experience, leads Casa San Jose

Peter Quintanilla - Design director at Baker

Mel Ngami - Young black architect at GBBN

Phillip Wu - Urban planner at Environmental Planning and Design

Steve Mazza - 25-year member of the Carpenters

On the whole, there seems to be more of a focus on getting stakeholders across the city, and less on the Commission as a group of nitpicky architects and urban planners. Presumably they have to rely more on DCP staff as a result.

Well, I stand corrected! I obviously haven't been paying attention. Seems like a decent group -- hopefully a big improvement on the overly picky, top-down, antagonistic tenor that the previous commission conveyed... seemingly in furtherance of individuals' own philosphies regarding development, rather than adhering to the City's zoning, land use, and development guidelines.

I got so tired of hearing about how certain project proposals did not address "equity" in their designs or did not incorporate "capacity building" framework principles.

[eschaton]

The Planning Commission this week also okayed the spot-rezoning of Mellon's Orchard to RM-VH.

The plan isn't 100% out of the woods yet. It calls for 264 units, but even with the rezone, it's only allowed 223 units by right. So it will go to the ZBA, giving local NIMBYs (who tried to block this) further chances to fuck with things. But the unit count is getting close enough to the plan now I think redevelopment is in the cards, even if they lose at the ZBA.