Southwestern Pennsylvania Citizens' Vision for Smart Growth:
Strengthening Communities and Regional Economy

CitizensVision.pdf

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Citizens' Vision for Smart Growth: Strengthening Communities and Regional Economy is fueling increasing public discourse in the region on need to revitalize and strengthen our existing communities as a key strategy and prerequisite for regional quality of life and economic competitiveness. 

Based on insights from land use trends forums Sustainable Pittsburgh held around the region, Citizens' Vision for Smart Growth identifies strategies for prosperity by linking economic performance to good fiscal management focusing public investments on revitalizing the region's established communities to reverse trends of sprawl and decline. The timing could not be better as developers, advocates, and elected officials are supporting a Smart Growth agenda.

The following organizations have endorsed Citizens' Vision and are committed to working collaboratively on an agenda for revitalizing cities, towns and older communities and helping the region to grow in more competitive, fiscally responsible ways:

3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program

Kolano Design

Affordable Comfort, Inc.

Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth Force

Allegheny County Health Department

League of Women Voters Greater Pittsburgh

Allegheny Land Trust 

The Main Stay Bed and Breakfast

Allegheny Trail Alliance

The Main Street Center - Beaver County

Arthur Lubetz Associates Architects

Manchester Citizens Corporation

Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management

Mon Valley Initiative

Bethlehem Haven

Mooncrest Neighborhood Association

Big Beaver Borough

Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy

Bike Pittsburgh, Inc

National Aviary

Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates

The Nicassio Group

celento henn Architects + Designers

Northside Leadership Conference

Central Northside Neighborhood Council

Oakland Planning and Development Corporation

Chambers Design Associates

Pashek Associates

Chaney Associates

PA Cleanways

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future

PA Resources Council, Inc.

Community Design Center of Pittsburgh

 Perfect Pitch Productions

Cool Space Locator

Perfido Weiskopf Architects

Cowanshannock Creek Watershed Association

Personalized PC Solutions, LLC

Crooked Creek Watershed Association

Pfaffmann + Associates

CrossRoads Contracting Corporation

Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation

The Design Alliance Architects

Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network

Duquesne University Center for Environmental Research and Education

Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

East Liberty Concerned Citizens Corporation

Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

Ebony Development LLC

Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project

Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

Pittsburgh Voyager

Ground Zero Action Network

Preservation Pittsburgh

Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP)

Ron Gargasz Organic Farms

Hanson Design Group, Ltd

Rothschild Doyno Architects

Harmony Trails Council

SW PA Ozone Action Partnership, Inc.

Hazelwood Initiative

Strada Architecture

The Heinz Endowments

Sustainable Communities, LLC

Hollow Oak Land Trust

Sustainable Pittsburgh

Holistic Living

Try Again Homes, Inc.

Housing Opportunities, Inc.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

INNITT

Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program

Jampole Communications, Inc.

West-to-West Coalition, Inc. - 21 Mon Valley Communities

Jaxon Development Company

Wilderness Voyageurs

King Communications

Wilkinsburg Municipal Authority

The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh
Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh

Citizens' Vision recommends key actions that include making public officials and community leaders aware of a profound contradiction that pervades the region and Commonwealth. It is a contradiction that compromises our economic prowess in the Global economy, diminishes citizens' economic well-being, is within our control to reverse, and demands immediate attention... The Commonwealth’s and our region's economic and demographic decline with significant sprawl cannot be sustained in a region of livable communities!

Together, Citizens' Vision for Smart Growth and Back to Prosperity by the Brookings Institution are a call to action. Your support is needed. Please join with the organizations that have signed on as Endorsing Partners of Citizens' Vision in support of its Smart Growth strategies for our region's development including: 

  • Regional land use planning that designates "Growth Areas" (currently served by public sewers) to steer development to existing communities, targeting public spending to reinforce existing infrastructure ("fix-it-first") and multi-jurisdictional approaches to planning and services.

  • Regional consideration of tax base/revenue sharing to foster growth in appropriate places.

  • Considering Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) reform so that its programmatic priorities represent region-wide objectives and foster multi-jurisdictional cooperation.

  • Increasing accountability of entities that set priorities for capital improvement investments to be more responsive to and reflective of region-wide needs. 

  • Adoption by SPC and the Port Authority of Allegheny County of the 20/20 Regional Transit Vision Plan as basis for “focused growth” regional planning.

Sustainable Pittsburgh will work collaboratively on these strategies for regional reform and support statewide efforts to advance municipal, county, regional, and state cooperation.

Please add your organization to the growing list (to see list click here) of those that endorse Citizens' Vision and help build constituency as we take both Citizens' Vision and Back To Prosperity around the region. To endorse Citizens' Vision, simply call (412) 258-6642 or email info@sustainablepittsburgh.org. There is no fee to endorse. If you would like a presentation of Citizens' Vision and Back To Prosperity, we can arrange a visit at your convenience. These reports can be found respectively at: http://www.sustainablepittsburgh.org/citzensvision/CitizensVision.pdf  and www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/pa.htm.

 

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Back to Prosperity by the Brookings Institution and Citizens Vision for Smart Growth by Sustainable Pittsburgh have much in common.  They are aligned in setting a foundation for new strategies for prosperity by linking economic performance to good fiscal management focusing public investments on existing communities ahead of sprawl.  Recommendations and analysis of both reports use latest and most creative thinking to make Southwestern Pennsylvania's established communities as prosperous as they can be and to reverse overall trends of decline so that more people enjoy better lives regardless of where they choose to reside and work.  And the timing of this work could not be better."

Please click http://www.sustainablepittsburgh.org/NewFrontPage/Spotlight_Katz.html to read the rest of the Spotlight on Sustainability.

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What Others are Saying About Citizens' Vision

Midweek Perspectives: Clarke Thomas / The $33.3 Billion Question

Can the region make smart use of federal and state money for infrastructure and development?

Fact 1: Between now and 2030, this region can expect $33.3 billion in federal and state dollars for its infrastructure -- highways, transit, water and sewer facilities and the like.

Fact 2: In our multicounty region, between 1982 and 1997, nearly half as much land (43 percent) was built on, paved or otherwise developed as in the entire two centuries before -- while the population was declining by 8 percent

Big question: Will these billions be spent on more urban sprawl? Or will they be channeled into "smart growth" -- that is, slowing the pace of sprawl to achieve greater social equity, environmental quality and economic prosperity?

Among many anti-sprawl suggestions in Sustainable Pittsburgh's "Southwestern Pennsylvania Citizens' Vision for Smart Growth" report, are these: "Assure that for every one acre of land developed, one acre is permanently protected from development." And "Prohibit Tax Increment Financing in any rural setting; it was created for redevelopment of blighted urban areas, not greenfields."

Regional government? Consolidation of municipalities? Fine. But if those routes aren't feasible, how about this way to tame the serpent sprawling in the garden: Alter the SPC board to include those who can think in regional terms to achieve smart growth through that $33.3 billion inflow.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03288/231138.stm