Allegheny River Towns Eye Development

Aspinwall Hearld
3 November 2011
By Mary Ann Thomas

Officials from local communities will weigh in on the future of riverfront land during a Nov. 16 meeting hosted by the Allegheny River Towns Enterprise Zone, or ARTEZ.

"It will be their first meeting with the consultant input about what people want to see their community look like in 20 years, so we can design overlay districts to get there," said John Stephen, executive director of ARTEZ.

Attending the 7 p.m. meeting at the Millvale Community Center will be local government representatives from the ARTEZ communities of Aspinwall, Blawnox, Etna, Millvale, O'Hara, Shaler and Sharpsburg.

The ARTEZ communities have agreed to participate in the overlay district, which will rezone riverfront parcels in all communities to encourage riverfront development, whether for a park or light industry.

"This will create an environment for high quality development and business development," Stephen said.

"It makes for a more attractive community and a more attractive community for businesses, as well," he said.

An Allegheny County grant of $30,000 is paying for the consultant, Pashek Associates, a North Side planning firm, to develop the overlay district.

Aspinwall Borough Councilman Joe Giuffre said the upcoming ARTEZ meeting would be an opportunity to look at every possible zoning district in Aspinwall and see how the zoning could be changed to woo new businesses.

Having all of the communities on the same page with similar zoning codes will, he said, be especially helpful for business owners who want to locate on the border line of two or more municipalities.

"If we have similar zoning codes, it will make it easier to develop those sites," Giuffre said.

The overlay district will allow individual communities to tweak their zoning codes to cater to future growth.

"If a community's goal is to provide public access to the river or a trail or to better manage storm water to prevent future floods, then those zoning codes could provide for that," Stephen said.

Mary Ann Thomas can be reached at mthomas@tribweb.com or 412-782-2121 x1510.