Volume 29 No. 7
July 2013
Unanimous vote prevents expansion of MWS historic district By Kelsey Shea
Photo by Kelsey Shea
Northsiders who attended Observatory Hill Inc.’s 2013 house tour last month boarded trollies to move around the neighborhood. See more house tour photos on page 10.
City of Asylum awarded second grant for GTB development By Kelsey Shea A second major grant was awarded to City of Asylum last month that will bring the literary organization one step closer to anchoring the Garden Theater Block. The Central Northside nonprofit organization received $250,000 from the Allegheny County Economic Development, Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund to fund machinery and equipment for Alphabet City, a new literary center planned to occupy several buildings the historic Garden Theater Block on West North Avenue. City of Asylum Co-founder and President Henry Reese said that
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while the grant will not accelerate the Alphabet City project, it will help ensure that it stays on schedule for an early 2014 completion. “We are gratefully to the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County for facilitating our project with this grant,” Reese said. Alphabet City will be located in the Masonic Temple at 12 W. North Avenue and will include space for readings, community events and classes as well as spaces for a café and bookstore. The CITF grant can be used to fund major mechanical systems in the building, such as HVAC, as well as broadcast systems and other tech-
See Grant, page 9
-Public Safety 4 -New street lights 5 -New cupcake cafe 7
City Council voted against a proposal to expand the boundaries of the Mexican War Streets Historic District last month due to strong opposition by Central Northside residents. The proposal was submitted by the Allegheny City Central Association, the neighborhood group of the Central Northside, and recommended that the borders of the Mexican War Streets Historic District be expanded to encompass the majority of the neighborhood. Eight city council members voted against the expansion, and City Council President Darlene Harris abstained. The decision cannot be appealed, and the district cannot be nominated for another five years. Councilman Daniel Lavelle, who represents the Central Northside’s district, voted against the proposal because he observed that the majority of the Central Northside residents who were in favor of the proposal already lived in the current historic district, while those who opposed it lived in the proposed expansion. “Our goal is to put forth legislation that will create a conservation district, which I believe would be a win-win for the neighborhood,” said Lavelle, who hopes to begin working on legislation for the conservation district by late June. Residents who live in city historic districts are subject to rules and regulations that dictate new construction and the aesthetics of renovations.
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Lavelle hopes that a conservation district would help appease both sides of the heated debate because the rules and regulations would be more lax and flexible. The plan to expand the district was approved by the Historic Review Commission in February. The ACCA hoped that the expansion would give the neighborhood group more leverage in dictating infill housing and demolition projects because the HRC would need to review work being done in the historic district. “We’re obviously disappointed by the outcome,” said David Shlapak, ACCA development committee char. “We still believe that expanding the historic district would have been the best way of ensuring the community’s future and that the legitimate concerns of our neighbors could have been addressed.” However, many residents who lived on streets that would have been added to the historic district opposed the measure because they felt it would make renovations on their homes expensive and difficult and because the rules and regulations would box low income neighbors out of the neighborhood. The Northside Coalition for Fair Housing took a particularly strong stand against the expansion of the historic district, and Executive Director Ronell Guy said she is “very pleased” with city council’s decision. “I realized that there were a lot of people in the in the neighborhood
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See MWS page 9