About the URA

Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh
About the URA

Showcase Projects:
Summerset at Frick Park

Nine Mile Run
Adjacent to Squirrel Hill, Frick Park, Swisshelm Park and the Monongahela River

PROJECT TYPE

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Brownfield Remediation
• New Construction Market Rate Housing in Traditional Neighborhood Development
• New Urbanist Community
• Regeneration and Expansion of Urban Park (Frick)
• Model for Urban Planning and Urban Redevelopment

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Summerset at Frick Park is a model for brownfield redevelopment and urban redevelopment.

Project highlights include:

• 106 acre expansion of Frick Park
• 8 acres of new neighborhood parks
• 47 acres of streets and boulevards
• 58 acres of new residential development
• 710 new homes (3 phases)

Summerset at Frick Park embraces smart growth. It is a public/ private effort that develops existing urban space and a former brownfield while reclaiming, restoring, and beautifying lost park lands and critical environmental areas.

This land reuse and land reclamation project of a former slag heap establishes a new high-density urban community and extends and rehabilitates an existing urban park (Frick Park).

The completed mixed land use project is highlighted by:

• 710 new high standard multi-type housing units, including EPA Energy Star certification for all homes
• Restoration and day-lighting of one of the area's last urban streams
• Restoration of the health and biological diversity of an aquatic ecosystem
• Restoration and expansion of wetlands and park lands
• New park trails and a new soccer field

Summerset at Frick Park's potential was recognized 90 years ago. In 1911, Frederick Olmstead Jr. saw Nine Mile Run as "perhaps the most striking opportunity of a large park. ideal for playing fields, the stream. wooded slopes, shaded walks, and cool resting places.give a sense of seclusion so rare in an urban area." Summerset at Frick Park captures this opportunity by restoring and extending the park and most certainly achieves a strong sense of place.

Residents can walk or bike to nearby recreation and commercial districts. The development and park are just 5 miles from Pittsburgh's central business district and 2 miles from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Oakland (the state's 3rd busiest business district). The development includes:

• Mass transit
• Park trails (which connect with the Pittsburgh riverfront)
• Pedestrian friendly streets

Commuting from the central business district will not require accessing any major highway.

Summerset is a "new traditional neighborhood" that blends in with existing adjacent urban neighborhoods.

The development reinvests in the existing community with several hundred new residents that will use schools, commercial districts, and the new park.

Tax revenues generated for the City of Pittsburgh from land that generated $0 in tax revenue include:

• $2.9 million in annual tax revenue
• A one time $3.6 million in transfer tax revenue

A collaborative community involvement process includes:

• Mayoral task force of community groups and civic leaders that initially met monthly and now meets quarterly
• Regular meetings with environmental organizations
• A three-day charette on March 6, 1997 at the inception of the development plan process included all local civic voices in the planning process
• Public availability of all environmental reports and studies

This process insures transparency and collaboration in decision making.

Summerset at Frick Park is a model for urban community design and brownfield redevelopment.

PUBLIC FINANCING

Note: Financing of this mid-phase project is on-going and will continue to use these and other sources as the project is completed.

KEY DATES AND ASPECTS

• Cooper, Robertson & Partners of NYC was retained to prepare a master plan for the site; their studies suggest the site could support in excess of 1,000 new housing units
• 1996 Master Plan completed
• Summerset Land Development Associates selected as developers
• Early 1997 URA completes final phases of environmental and geotechnical investigations
• Original plan to reshape existing slag configuration and create a single site of maximum area by placing Nine Mile Run stream into a culvert and filling the valley rejected due to variety of negative public reactions
• Plan revised, reducing total amount of developable area to accommodate 713 new housing units and committing to restore the stream
• Primary challenge facing any development proposal for the Nine Mile Run area is to cleanup of industrial contamination and restoration of site to a viable landscape
• URA continues preparation of site plateaus for the residential development while The City Planning Department develops plan for restoration of land
• Major issues confronting plans to restore the site to environmentally viable status center around water quality and sewage issues and slag revegetation
• Entire site rezoned, "RP", Planned Residential and Risk Assessment and Cleanup Plan completed and approved by the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
• June 1999 grading of Phase I of the site began in and is complete
• Fall of 2000 infrastructure work began for Phase 1A was completed
• Phase 2 grading and Phase 1B infrastructure work was completed.
• By September 2005, 79 single family homes had been completed and occupied, and also 40 rental apartments had been completed and rented.