Walkabout: Upper Lawrenceville Looks To Revitalize Without Losing Grit

Locator map with the Upper Lawrenceville neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While so many neighborhoods are casting about to reinvent themselves as vibrant post-industrial places, denizens of Upper Lawrenceville want to tie a vibrant future to the industry that remains.

They began developing a new vision for the neighborhood, referred to by some residents as the 10th Ward, in a series of three meetings that Lawrenceville United and the Lawrenceville Corp. initiated last fall. With $15,000 from the Design Center, they hired Christine Mondor of evolve EA, a design firm in Friendship, to lead the sessions, with help from Chelsea Burket, a community strategist with Fourth Economy, a consulting firm on the North Shore.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians‘ hall on Carnegie Street was standing room only for each meeting. The process linked natives of the neighborhood, old and young, to relative newcomers, many of whom have found the last affordable part of Lawrenceville.

After a final meeting last week, they embarked with a new plan and strategies to enliven the neighborhood without sacrificing its authenticity.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/morning-file/walkabout-upper-lawrenceville-looks-to-revitalize-without-losing-grit-672447/#ixzz2JPx0UOeV

Greater Things: Brownsville, PA Documentary

Reading OKs Program To Sell Off Blighted Houses

Needing a way for the city to sell off the blighted houses it has begun taking from property owners, City Council on Monday approved an agreement to use a special program by the Reading-Berks Association of Realtors.

Part of a statewide effort, the Realtors’ Community Reinvestment – or CORE – program will try to match the homes with buyers and mortgage companies and rehab contractors.

There are several advantages to the buyers, top among them a 10-year graduated property tax abatement – no taxes the first year, scaling up to 90 percent in the 10th.

But there’s also potential help with closing and rehab costs and even the price of the home, as well as cutting in half the 5 percent real estate transfer tax and discount permit fees.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=416724

Rail Yard Rezoning Before Lancaster City Council

More than six years ago Lancaster City Council gave its enthusiastic blessing to a plan to build a “meds & eds” campus on the former Armstrong World Industries site.

Council members voted to rezone 57 acres of the former flooring plant to allow the creation of athletic fields for Franklin & Marshall College and educational facilities for Lancaster General Hospital.

Now they being asked to rezone a long, narrow area that separates two sections of the college and completes the expanded tract for the $46 million project.

On Monday, Lancaster General Hospital formally asked council members to change the zoning designation for 28 acres of Norfolk Southern‘s Dillerville rail yard from “central manufacturing” to “mixed use.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/643821_Rail-yard-rezoning-before-Lancaster-City-Council.html#ixzz1uKNeTHe0

Land Bank Bill Newest Anti-Blight Tool

HARRISBURG – Local governments could set up land banks to prepare abandoned and tax-delinquent properties for new uses under a House-approved bill offering the latest tool to fight blight.

The House approved the measure this week enabling a county, city or borough with a population greater than 10,000 to create a land bank.

Sen. David Argall, R-29, Tamaqua, has sponsored a companion bill in the Senate. He thinks the land bank idea would be welcomed in Northeast Pennsylvania. “Any community that has any degree of economic distress is going to have a blight problem,” he said.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/land-bank-bill-newest-anti-blight-tool-1.1273144#ixzz1mrPZezMg

Lancaster Mixed-Use Project In Former Armstrong Buildings

First proposed as a light industrial/heavy commercial project, Liberty North has since been transformed into a mixed-use endeavor, with 35 upscale rentals either finished or in the design stage.

Comprised of two buildings at the former Armstrong World Industries site in Lancaster city, Liberty North also features almost 25,000 square feet of commercial space as well.

One of those buildings — a 52,000-square-foot, two-story edifice at 1060 N. Charlotte St. — includes the luxury apartments.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/550877_Upscale-apartments-appeal-to–rightsizers-.html#ixzz1gqoRyyAw

Philadelphia’s Spring Garden Street Greenway Project

Patrick Starr, executive vice president of the Philadelphia region of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said the organization is working with city and state agencies to transform the 2.2-mile east-west roadway into a linear park or “greenway” connecting the city’s Delaware and Schuylkill riverfronts.

“We think Spring Garden Street can be a real hub of activity,” Starr said. “It has what we call ‘good bones.’ It’s a wider street and some parts already have a median strip with nice trees.”

Read the entire article here: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20111205_Will_Spring_Garden_get_the_green_light_.html?cmpid=124488489

Pittsburgh Housing Authority Makes Serious Financial Commitment To The Hill District

Image via Wikipedia

The Pittsburgh Housing Authority has set aside $33.4 million towards the demolition of a dilapidated, crime-ridden project in the Hill District.  The PHA will raze 734 apartments and replace them with 440 new townhouse units.  Only 404 of the 734 units are now occupied at Addison Terrace. The project will take 10 years to complete and be done in phases.

This is a significant financial commitment by the City of Pittsburgh toward cleaning up and revitalizing the Hill District.

Pennsylvania Brownfield Inventory Redevelopment Site

Image via Wikipedia

Here is a great website for any municipality who has a brownfield(s) to be redeveloped or any developer looking for a project site.  The information on this website is voluntary and supplied by property owners and community redevelopment organizations.  Pennsylvania also has a Brownfields Assistance Program!

For more information, click here: http://brownfields.pasitesearch.com/

Lancaster Mixed-Use Project Wrapping Up Phase One

Liberty North, a high-end, mixed-use project at 1060 North Charlotte Street in Lancaster is almost ready to have its first tenants move in.  The second-floor renovations are complete and 20 of 21 loft apartments are rented!  First-floor work starts this fall and will add more apartments and commercial space.

Apartments rent for $900 – $1800 a month and there are no shortage of takers; if the success rate on the second-floor is any indicator for the rest of the project.

Here is as link to the site for the project with all the information you could want and pictures: http://drogariscompanies.com/libertynorth