Breaks on Blight!City questions URA's blight designation request The city planning commission yesterday questioned the city Urban Redevelopment Authority's application for blight certification as part of its plan to aid development of the old Nabisco plant site in East Liberty.Think again! Pittsburgh needs to end TIFs. Plus, Pittsburgh needs to end the expansion of the designation of blight. Blight is everywhere, because they designate blight throughout the city.
The URA is seeking blight certification as part of pursuing tax-increment financing, or TIF.
The former NABISCO plant does NOT sit in an area of blight. Nor should the former plant get a TIF.
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City questions URA's blight designation request
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The city planning commission yesterday questioned the city Urban Redevelopment Authority's application for blight certification as part of its plan to aid development of the old Nabisco plant site in East Liberty.
The URA is seeking blight certification as part of pursuing tax-increment financing, or TIF.
Pittsburgh City Council last week gave the URA the nod to explore using tax-increment financing to aid the planned $110 million Bakery Square project, which would turn the former Nabisco bakery into shops, offices, housing and hotel space.
In a TIF, the URA borrows money to aid a project, and pays off the debt using most of the new property taxes created by the development.
The area in question is between Penn Avenue and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, from East Liberty Boulevard to Fifth Avenue, east of the old Nabisco plant and the former Reizenstein school.
Todd Reidbord, principal of Walnut Capital, which is proposing Bakery Square, sits on the planning commission and left the room during discussion of the application.
The state allows 10 percent of a city's taxable property to be designated as TIF districts.
"If this one would put us at 10 percent," said city Planning Director Pat Ford, "we need to decide whether this is the one we want to" put us at the limit. He said he does not intend for his department to seek blight definition so a large developer can get a tax break.
He said he will ask his staff to compile a list of the city's TIF districts to present to the commission before a vote is scheduled.
A public hearing on the application has been scheduled for Nov. 21.
Also yesterday, the planning commission tabled votes on a building-height amendment and a green-building proposal.
The board asked for clarifications on the amendment from the city's planning staff.
The amendment, sponsored by Councilman William Peduto, would, in part, exempt radio antennae, belfries, spires and steeples, chimneys, smokestacks and elevator bulkheads from being considered part of a building's height for zoning considerations.
It will be on a future agenda, as will Mr. Peduto's proposal to allow developers who follow LEED -- or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design -- standards to build up to 20 percent above what is normally permitted.
Commission members want to look more closely at various ways they can help stimulate the green-building climate in the city.
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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