Active Projects

3339 Ward Street

Proposed conversion of an office building to a 19-unit residential building. Paramount Construction presented preliminary plans for the project at the November 30, 2021 Oakland-Wide Meeting, requesting residents’ feedback on the design. Paramount returned on December 11, 2023 with updated plans.

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UPMC Presbyterian Bed Tower

About

UPMC plans to construct a new building on the former Children’s Hospital site on Fifth Avenue.

The Presbyterian Bed Tower would include 636 beds for ICU, stepdown, and discharge patients. The proposed building would be 288’ tall, at no more than 17 stories, occupying just under 900,000 square feet above Fifth Ave. Plans include room for 450 cars in its garage.

Plans include green space consisting of a tree canopy, native plant species, and on-site stormwater capture. Also part of the design is a lifestyle village that would invite both staff and community members into the hospital.

Updates

UPMC hosted two community meetings in late 2018 to answer resident questions and discuss how the development plans could include some community benefits. This hospital is consistent with the UPMC Institutional Master Plan (IMP) approved by the city in late 2014. This development requires City Planning Commission approval but does not need to go in front of the City Council as it is in their IMP.

As of early March 2019, UPMC is putting this project on pause and plans to re-engage the community with public meetings later.

April 2021 update - The project is still on hold. UPMC has re-engaged its architect and restarted the design process. UPMC plans to share its community engagement plan this summer and will then go through the approval process.

May 2021 update - UPMC announced that they expect to begin construction in summer 2022, with the building opening in fall 2026

UPMC presented at the August 31 Oakland-Wide meeting and returned for the November 30, 2021 Oakland-Wide/Development Activities Meeting. The project went to the Planning Commission meeting for a briefing on March 8. UPMC returned to the Planning Commission for a hearing on March 22, 2022 where the Commission unanimously approved the project.

June 2022: UPMC breaks ground.

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3730 Dawson Street

The owner of the vacant lot at 3730 Dawson Street seeks community input as they plan to redevelop the parcel of land. Current options include subdividing the lot to accommodate two homes with off-street parking in front or to retain the existing lot size and pursue variance to allow for a duplex with a driveway and rear parking.

Jerimiah Brooks, Senior Associate with Stantec Architecture, presented the initial concepts at the June 29, 2021 Oakland-Wide meeting.

This property has filed for lot subdivision.

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Bates Street rowhouses/cleared lot

Project Summary: Oakland Gateway Ventures (OGV) purchased the row house on Bates St. between Boulevard of the Allies and Zulema St in 2014. OGV proposed a development that was opposed by the community. OPDC, along with our local elected officials, opposes it as it is not consistent with the Oakland 2025 Master Plan or City of Pittsburgh zoning. Read the town hall minutes here: https://www.opdc.org/blog/2017/11/21/november-2nd-town-hall-meeting.

February 4, 2021 UPDATE

OPDC statement re: conservatorship filing, 3400 block of Bates Street

As has been reported in the media, a private firm filed a conservatorship action to become the conservator of the row of vacant properties in the 3400 block of Bates Street.  OPDC is currently discussing the planned future development of the site with principals at Penn Pioneer Enterprises in an effort to determine a redevelopment plan that will be financially feasible and also be a community asset in line with zoning and worthy of community support.  OPDC will continue discussions to prepare information for a community meeting in the next month or so to solicit community input and feedback.  Please stay tuned for more details as we have them. 

June 14, 2021 UPDATE

Walnut Capital is acquiring the condemned rowhouses located in the 3400 block of Bates Street.

Walnut Capital presented plans to demolish the buildings and plant grass at a June 24, 2021 Development Activities Meeting (DAM). No development is proposed at this time; they will present any proposal to the community in the future. Walnut Capital presented the project for a hearing at the July 27 Planning Commission meeting; the commission voted to approve. Demolition on the project started in early August 2021. New sidewalk surrounding the now empty lot was poured and opened to the public in late October 2021.

These buildings have since been demolished and the property sold to Pitt.

Project resources:

Council Bill 2021-1906, proposed “Oakland Crossings” UC-MU

About

The UC-MU District allows for commercial uses while also providing housing options. Publicly accessible open spaces are required, along with active ground floor uses and adequate sidewalk width. To transition from smaller scale residential adjacent to this district, green spaces and other buffers are required between lower scale residential and taller new buildings.

Upcoming

On July 11, there is a scheduled joint Development Activities Meeting for the first phase of Oakland Crossings “Parcel A” at 3401 Boulevard of the Allies. The developer seeks to add 426 apartments units, a grocery store, parking, and retail in the space. Renderings can be accessed here.

Past Updates

On Friday, September 17, 2021 Mayor Bill Peduto submitted a bill to City Council, seeking to re-zone 17+ acres of Central and South Oakland. This bill is not a product of the ongoing Oakland Plan process, and did not involve the Department of City Planning.

At the regular City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 21, Councilman Bobby Wilson introduced the bill as 2021-1906 and remanded it to the Land Use and Economic Development Committee to refer to the Planning Commission.

Oakland residents organized a petition for a public hearing on the bill and submitted it on Friday morning, September 24. At the next meeting of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee on Wednesday, September 29, the committee voted to hold the bill pending the citizen-demanded public hearing.

City Council hosted a public hearing on Tuesday, October 5. 31 people spoke at the hearing, 27 in opposition to the bill, including 17 Oakland residents. Following the hearing, OPDC and several Oakland residents reached out to Councilman Bruce Kraus’s office to request a meeting to discuss the matter further. No one received any acknowledgment.

On October 12, Councilman Kraus announced that he, his legislative aide, and Walnut Capital’s lawyer had spent every day since the hearing behind closed doors working on a set of amendments, which he introduced at the same time that he asked Council to approve them. After some brief discussion, Council voted 8-0 to send the amended bill to the Planning Commission for its review.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing for this bill on January 11, 2022 (see guidelines for submitting testimony here). Following the hearing, the Planning Commission will make a recommendation to City Council, at which point City Council will review the Planning Commission recommendation, receive public comment, and vote.

OPDC hosted a Development Activities Meeting for the proposal on Monday, November 29, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. The project presented plans at a briefing before the Planning Commission on December 7. Originally schedule for a hearing on January 11, 2022, new Mayor Ed Gainey requested a 30-day continuance and a new hearing date.

Mayor Gainey attended the January 25 Oakland-Wide meeting regarding the proposed Oakland Public Realm District E (OPR-E).

The Mayor’s office hosted a public community listening session on February 2, 2022.

The bill was scheduled for a Planning Commission for a hearing on February 8. Mayor Gainey issued another 30-day continuance and a new hearing date was set for March 8, 2022.

On March 7 at 2:00 p.m., the Mayor’s office released a statement and substantial and transformative revisions (including a change from 17 to 13 acres) to the proposed Oakland Crossings legislation. Click for the Mayor’s press release and revised text.

At the March 8 meeting, the Planning Commission issued another continuance. The bill returned for a hearing on March 22.

On May 25, the bill went before City Council for a hearing. From here, the bill was referred to Land Use Committee, who will then refer it back to City Council for a vote in the coming weeks.

On June 13, Councilman Kraus hosted a meeting to discuss 2021-1906. He heard from Oakland residents their concerns about the process, heights, and uses in the bill. He announced that the bill would be discussed at the next standing committee meeting.

On June 15, City Council, at it’s regular meeting, discussed 2021-1906. An amendment to the bill was introduced less than an hour before the meeting began, which changed the maximum allowable street façade length from 400 ft to 425 ft. This amendment was passed, but then City Council had a spirited discussion not just about the appropriateness of that length, but also whereby the bill had arrived in Council chambers. The city solicitor advised Council that they could take no action on the bill until the public had been given the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the proposed amendment. The bill is held at standing committee until next weeks meeting June 29.

At a Standing Committees meeting on June 22, Pittsburgh City Council gave Council Bill 2021-1906 an affirmative recommendation.

On June 28, 2022, Council Bill 2021-1906 was passed.

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