Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Well, hello, Miss Reikus. Hello. Safe and warm here, but ready for spring.

Is that not Is that not so true? We're about one minute to start and we are going to have to to wait for everybody to get here um commissioners because we are starting at uh hearing and action today and not at briefing and given that we've got to have quorum. So I do apologize if we are going to be slightly delayed as we're waiting for um at minimum one additional commissioner to pop in here for us. So patience please look at it's like Hollywood Squares all you beautiful people. All right. So, we have a new member on on on our Hollywood square here.

We do. I wonder who that is. Well, you'll have to hold around and wait for director's report so we can do a proper introduction. Oh, shocks.

And just for the general public, if you have tuned in, uh, welcome, welcome, welcome. We do apologize there is a slight delay. We are waiting for another commissioner to come in uh so that we have quorum uh because we cannot begin today's meeting because we are beginning at hearing and action portion of today until we've got um uh quorum. So uh please be patient with us. We are uh waiting and it should be any moment now. Thank you. I I will give everybody a cold weather tip. Make sure your gas meter is uncovered from snow because they do pump water into your gas. Goes through the gas line. So, make sure that's uncovered. You know, it's usually doesn't freeze, but it's going down to minus 25 probably or whatever. Minus 10, whatever. Just make sure that's uncovered.

Oh my. Thank you for that tip. greatly appreciated. That's my tip of the day, and that's all I'm saying for the rest of the day. Well, not all, but I like that. How about any other uh cold weather tips?

Uh don't don't turn the heat off at any point. Just keep it on. Um is that what sounds to me? Would you do something like that? Yeah. I I mean, if if you turn it off, you know, it's like turning your car off. You have to, you know, you have to power it back on and that that uses more energy. So, yeah, mine's on 60. So, look at you. 60. Throw another jacket on. What the hell? What's wrong with you? Save some. Uh,

so I'm going to share a little tip and I noticed this on my way in this morning. There were people shoveling themselves out of their parking spaces, you know, so they could move their vehicles. Unfortunately though, when they were shoveling snow, they were they were they were packing in their neighbors car even more. So it, you know, just be a little bit courteous and figure out where it is that you're putting snow when you're putting snow. Looks like we do have another commissioner, Commissioner Blackwell. Thank you so much. Welcome. Hello. Hello. Hope everyone's warm.

Yes, we are. And thank you so much for joining us because now we are at quorum and you give us the ability to get started. So, hey, let's go.

Let's go. So, we'll go ahead and begin. Good afternoon, good and beautiful people of Pittsburgh. I hope that today finds Yins warm and safe. Welcome to the planning commission for the January 27, 2026 meeting. I am going to um read through the agenda, but please know today we are starting at the hearing and action portion of today's session. Uh running through the agenda and it is as follows. Agenda item A is approval of minutes. Agenda item B is correspondence. Agenda item C is plan of lots. We have one item under plan of lots. Uh and that is um DCP-lot-2026-00003 at 5429 Dunmo Street. Under agenda item D, hearing and action, we have one item which is as follows. BDA-2024-08149 at 1206 Forbes Avenue. And then the final agenda item is agenda item E, which is the director's report. And I understand we will have a director's report for today. Moving back up to agenda item A, approval of commission minutes. Commissioners, we are not in receipt of any minutes to approve for today uh January 27, 2026. Following agenda item B, which is correspondence, we are not in receipt of correspondence for today either. Uh agenda item C, which is plan of lots, just so that everyone knew what they were waiting for. I shared a sneak peek. Now we're going to do it in full. Uh item number one under plan of lots is DCP-lot-2026-00003

at 5429 Gunmo Street. This is a major subdivision in the Squirrel Hill North neighborhood. Presenting this afternoon is Mr. Shepki.

Thank you. Um I'll wait till it comes up. This is the Dunmo Street subdivision. This is the proposed subdivision of one parcel into two parcels. The proposed lot one would have frontage on Dunmo Street and would be 122,174 ft in area. The proposed lot two would have frontage on Dunmo Street and would be 7,482 ft in area. A house is located on the subject property. Planning Commission issued their initial review at the last planning commission meeting and the recommended motion is to approve the Dunmo Street subdivision.

Thank you, Mr. Shepki. Um, at this time we open the floor if there is anyone here that would like to give public testimony on this item. Um, if there is not, then we will move forward. assuming there no testimony. Thank you so much. Uh, one item that I did forget to cover um, thank you so much was roll call of commissioners. Let me do that and then we'll go into roll call for for this uh, vote. Um, Commissioner Blackwell present.

Thank you so much. Commissioner Burton Faulk present. Commissioner Dick. All right. Commissioner Maza here. Thank you so much. Uh, Commissioner Kinttonia present. Thank you. And Commissioner Woo present. Thank you so much. All right. And uh since we've now done roll call and made that official, I'm going to go back up to we had no public testimony for the plan of lots for 5429 Dunmo Street. We're now going to ask commissioners um do I have a motion from the floor to approve?

Motion to approve. Thank you, Commissioner Maza. Do I have a second? All right. Thank you, Commissioner Blackwell. I'm now going to do roll call and that is as follows. Commissioner Blackwell I. Thank you. Commissioner Burton Faulk. I uh Commissioner Gam, welcome. I see you here. Um I'll abstain. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Maza. I thank you so much. Uh Commissioner Centineia. Hi. Thank you. And Commissioner Woo. Hi,

thank you so much. And because I'm watching Hollywood Squares, I just want to make sure no other commissioners have come in. Uh given no, we will move forward to agenda item D, which is hearing and action. Under hearing and action, there is one item and it is as follows. Item number one, BDA-2024-08149. This is located at 1206 Forbes Avenue. This is construction of a fivestory academic building for Dukane University in the Bluff neighborhood. Presenting this afternoon is Mr. Frager.

Good afternoon, commissioners. I am going to give us a moment to promote our uh applicants to the zoom stream and then I will read in the case. Um I believe we have everyone um if the applicant team would let us know by the by uh hands being raised in uh in the attendee list that will help us promote you. All right. And while we're promoting people, I will go ahead and read in the case. Project development plan application BDA 202408149 was filed by AE Works on behalf of Dane University for new construction of a fivestory 80,000q ft² building at the corner of Forbes Avenue and McGee Street in the Bluff neighborhood. The proposed use is for the building to house the Rang Rango School of Health Sciences which falls under the education and classroom space general use in the zoning code. The building will include classrooms, labs, and offices as well as a clinic at the ground floor level. Per section 911 of the zoning code, the proposed use of education classroom space general shall be in compliance with an approved institutional master plan. The use shall also be subject to the project development plan review procedures of section 922. An existing institutional master plan is on file for Dane University. Last amend last amended in July of 2025. That amendment relocated the proposed Rango School of Public Health from the

north side of Forbes Avenue to its present proposed location at the southwest corner of Forbes Avenue and McGee Street. City staff have reviewed the proposal against the standards outlined within the institutional master plan. The project is compliant with the use and dimensional requirements as outlined in the IMP. The dimensional requirements include 30oot step setback along Forbes Avenue and 20ft setback on McGee Street. There's also an open space requirement that will be met with publicly accessible open with a publicly accessible open space plaza on Forbes Avenue. 10-ft sidewalks are being provided along both frontages as well. The open space will include an active plaza space with trees, planters, and benches intended to provide areas of respit for individuals and small gatherings. This open space is consistent with open space guidelines um within the IMP. The proposal includes street trees within 20 ft of the rightway in compliance with uh zoning code section 91802C. Utilities along the street edge preclude planting between the street and the sidewalk. The proposal will be removing 93 total inches of trees from the site which will need to be replaced on a 1 in for 1 in basis. The applicant is currently working with forestry on the locations of those replacement trees which will be provided at designated campus locations. The project will be achieving certain sustainability measures but will not be lead or passive house certified. The IMP while not explicitly requiring certification does say certification should be obtained where feasible. The project will have a ground floor transparency of 53% along Forbes Avenue

just under the 60% recommendation in the institutional master plan. The applicant indicated this reduction is necessary necessary for the ground floor health care and educational functions which requires additional privacy. The the proposal was reviewed against the Uptown Eco Innovation District plan. A plan compliance report is attached for the commission's review. The project was reviewed at the Contextual Design Advisory Panel on October 14th. The panel appreciated the strong street edge this building will help create at the corner of Forbes Avenue and the front public space for gathering and circulation. The panel had recommendations for material and orientation of the clinic entrance. The full contextual design advisory panel comments are attached to your report. A development activities meeting was held with the Bluff Neighborhoods registered community organizations on October 20, 2025. The community organizations were largely supportive of the proposal. With that, the recommended motion is that the planning commission of the city of Pittsburgh approves the project development plan BDA 202408149 with the following conditions. that the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure shall review and approve all domey permits and construction management plan prior to issuing the record of zoning approval. And the final construction plans, including site plans and elevations, shall be reviewed and approved by the zoning administrator prior to issuing the record of zoning approval. So, with that, I'll turn it over to the applicants for the presentation.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Can you hear me? We can hear you very well. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh my name is Rod Dobish. I'm associate vice president and chief facilities officer at Dukane University. I do appreciate you guys' time this afternoon. And I want to publicly thank Joe Fracker for helping us guide us through the system. I mean, he's he's done a phenomenal job helping us. So, it's always good to give a shout out to people who actually help us through a process. So, um, we've been talking about this building for a while. It's a replacement for our existing School of Health Science building. They've kind of outgrown their existing space and we have some caps on enrollment. And then we think this will be a nice addition to all the improvements that the university has made on Forbes Avenue. I call this the capstone project that we're going to finish off Forbes Avenue. Uh, we can go to the next slide. Um these are the items that we're going to go over much like what we did in the briefing. Uh it's the university's intent the design that we work through how we're handling the transportation storm water management and landscaping uh energy use and sustainability and community engagement. So uh with that I'll turn it over to uh Gabe who's going to guide through the rest of the presentation. Thank you, Rod. And commissioners, can you hear me? Okay.

We can hear you very well. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you. Uh and and thank you so much for having us. My name is Gabriel Hohag. I'm an architect with the Slam Collaborative. We are the architect of record and in a partnership with our uh our other consultants on the team. We want to thank you for the the chance to present this on behalf of uh Dukane University. Uh if you could advance to the next slide. Dukane University has organized a vision aligned with their institutional master plan to create this new 80,000 square foot home for the school of health sciences. Spaces within this facility will allow students, faculty, and staff to cultivate instruction and learning through a variety of immersive simulation spaces across a continuum of care. These include a clinic with pediatric speech language pathology programs, simulated hospital, physical therapy, hyo table labs, and simulated homebased care environments for training caregivers working with stroke recovery patients. To support these programs, the project's big ideas include interdisciplinary instruction, strengthening engagement, leveraging technology, and a sightspecific design for this urban campus supporting the university's commitment to improving public health and well-being. Please advance to the next slide. We are within the design phase of construction documents preparing for bidding and permitting midyear as the project targets occupancy for the fall semester of 2028. Next slide please. The project site is located along Forbes Avenue at the corner of McGee Street

adjacent to the existing Forbes garage and Locust Garage structures. Next slide, please. The proposed project will transform the existing surface lot into a fivestory facility with these instructional, administrative, and simulation environments. The function-driven planning has also prioritized spaces with access to natural daylight to connect to the broader Forbes A experience. The exterior materials are durable and have been designed to continue a common language used within the university campus and contextual to Forbes Avenue. Facades are organized to articulate depth, rhythm, visual interest, and fold in the transparency on the lower levels in alignment with the urban design targets. Next slide, please. Here the team has highlighted how the design addresses the urban design targets established for the project. Next slide, please. The project aligns with the institutional master plan amended in 2025. On this campus plan, the building is highlighted in red. Next slide, please. Viewed from the corner of Forbes A at McGee Street, the entrance is animated with a vertical zone of glass and student life spaces above it sit between the two warm toned brick volumes of instructional spaces. The series of bay windows, brick reveals, repeated metal cornice lines create smaller scaled features for enhanced pedestrian experience. The next slide, please.

The project aligns with the setback and height criteria established in the IMP and include setbacks which are contextually appropriate with nearby buildings to maintain a strong urban edge. Next slide, please. Universal design is layered into the project both through accessible access from the sidewalk and through the mission of the programming taking place within. Special attention has been applied to the size, layout, and sensory perception of rooms to facilitate the widest spectrum of users with disabilities. The next slide, please. The existing service vehicle movement on Gibbons Street will be leveraged to service this project. Service vehicles will enter McGee Street and turn down Gibbon Street and support the building from receiving zone at the south side of the building. Service vehicles exit by proceeding under Forbes Avenue as they currently do. The next slide, please. The design features street trees along Forbes Avenue with a pedestrian plaza leading to the main building entrance. A separate dedicated entrance is provided for the clinic on the northwest corner and the building service entrance is located along Gibbon Street. The next slide, please. The team has illustrated the accessible pedestrian pathways serving the building main entrance and clinic entrance. Accessible parking is provided within Forbes Avenue garage with an accessible pedestrian pathway connecting back to the building and an additional accessible space can be accommodated at

Gibbon and McGee the bottom right of this image. Next slide please. The transportation related goals were developed with city and domey initiatives in mind and in conjunction with the goals of the uptown ecoinnovation district project report. Multimodal transportation is supported by bike rack placement, the PRT UPass program for students and staff and the upcoming installation of the community ebike station. The next slide, please. The project's storm water management concept was approved and is currently in technical review. The project's BMPPS include the three highlighted here, two underground detention tanks, and one above ground bio retention area. The next slide, please. The health of proposed plantings are enhanced with resiliency features appropriate for this urban site. The next slide, please. The landscape design integrates appropriately scaled spaces with a tree layout contextually appropriate for Forbes Avenue. For this dense urban condition, the trees associated with this site are being carefully considered and coordinated between the project team and DPW to align with the IMP. The next slide, please. The project's mechanical equipment at grade along Gibbon Street is screened from Forbes to meet the criteria for landscape screening through both

planting and a louver style fence. The next slide, please. The university's IMP shows the potential zones where the project tree caliber replacement action is currently being coordinated. The next slide, please. The project incorporates active uses along the ground floor facing Forbes Avenue. The design seeks to balance the high transparency target with the planning criteria associated with the clinic spaces, which require more limited transparency. Consideration has been given to shifting as many functions as possible, which would promote this transparency goal. The next slide, please. The design augments the facade transparency goal with activated student life spaces stacked vertically as a collaborative and animated zone. The next slide, please. The design leverages several sustainable strategies. One passive strategy includes carefully configured windows designed to introduce appropriate natural daylight and to balance a window to wall ratio. The next slide, please. A wide range of system design features enhance the sustainable and wellness attributes of the building. These include designs to reduce HVAC fan energy use, fixtures which reduce water use, and the reduction of light pollution to align with dark sky criteria. A sightsp specific strategy also includes obtaining energy from a nearby district utility plant providing heating and cooling at a significantly more

efficient rate than localized building equipment. The next slide, please. This project dovetales with the focus areas of the eco innovation district. Dukane university continues to be part of that engagement. The next slide please. This project has progressed through a series of regulatory steps some of which are shown here and I'll highlight several of the letters of support including from our co engagement meetings. The next slide, please. On behalf of our design team and along with our partners at Dukane University, I thank you for the opportunity to present these materials.

Thank you. Given that concludes your presentation, uh we appreciate how thorough um it has been. At this time, we do open the floor for public testimony. Are there any hands raised for public testimony on this application? No hands are raised.

All right, commissioners, at this time, if there's no public testimony, uh are there comments that you would like to make regarding this application? uh and or a motion from the floor uh to approve based on the two conditions as stated in our reports. It looks as if Commissioner Maza has raised his hand.

Yes. Um I I think it's a a great project number one. It looks really good to me. Um, and I, you know, I want to thank, uh, Dukane University number one for actually, you know, working with my organization for as long as I can remember, 35 years, 36 years. Um, you always think about the communities. You work with people in the communities. You help u create jobs that um give various standards for working families, people of our, you know, of our city and helps people see the light at the end of the tunnel on the minority participation side. You're always looking towards that to find another way to help everybody. I mean, you you see the big picture. You're part of the Hill District area. We know there's a lot of minority participation contracts in that area and you always seem to, you know, raise it to the next level. Um, you're one of the few, you know, developers in the city that actually does care about people. Um, that's important to me. It's important to my organization. I know it's important to the city. And you also see the big picture, what's good for the community. That's a big piece of that area and everywhere else in the city as well. And you know, it's it's about a lot more than that. But I appreciate that, you know, the things that you do and what you talk about and anytime there's anything that you all would need from my organization on the workforce development side or workforce participation, we're always there to help. And I'm, you know, I'm strongly in favor for this this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Maz. It looks like uh Commissioner Blackwell has raised her hand. Commissioner Blackwell. Yes. Um I agree with everything that my fellow commissioner Mazda said about the community. It really is refreshing when a developer presents and presents with the community at the center whether community as students, community as business uh neighbors, uh residents. um especially in a hill district when we know there's a lot of development that happens and community is kind of an afterthought um whether intentional or not. So I agree with um Commissioner Mazo on all his comments and I also wanted to say that the project is not only u beautiful but you know it it's classic Pittsburgh with the brick. I really can appreciate that in the materials used as well as the tree canopy um taken in consideration for the climate uh while it might not be leading intentional with the storm water uh and just making sure that everyone's voice was heard on every level of development and I too am and um would approve this project.

Okay, very good. Thank you, Commissioner Blackwell. Commissioner Kinttonia. Hi, good afternoon everyone and again I think I would like to echo everybody's comment. This is a fantastic project and I really love what it's doing to Forbes which is really great. My only question that I had and I think we talked about it during the during the CADB meeting which is the little corner where you have the emergency exit slash where you have the bike parking. Did we have included more lighting? Um, or did we did we look at that in in a little bit more detail? Because that was my only concern that I had was the little nook of a of a space there and how was that going to be treated?

Thank you, commissioner, for that comment. We did take a look at that after hearing those init initial feedback. We've included a graphic in this presentation along with the rendered site plan. It shows the um updated alignment of the light fixtures along McGee Street which are equally spaced. Uh and we've included the the representation of the egress lighting that was not in the graphic prior. Great. So that it can augment the the lighting and the experience of an of a lit space.

Great. Thank you so much. I think that was my only question that I had. Otherwise, I think it's a fantastic building. It would definitely add a lot to our to our city. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Kinttonia. Um, I'll do I'll do a motion call in a in a second in a moment here. You know, I just want to reiterate what I had said at the briefing, which is this is a very warm and inviting building. It front faces with a lot of activity and opportunity to engage with uh humans uh but still gives room for cars. I appreciate that you put more of the gems in the front of the building recognizing that the back abuts to a parking lot. So I I think you it was money um well spent uh very intentional how you use the interior space and how it engages with the folks that will be utilizing uh the space whether it be the clinic whether it be uh student communing uh rooms where they can gather where there's a lot of light I think you u put a lot into the thought of the space both inside and outside and how that would be fluid with the humans that that are uh maybe not utilizing the building. I I definitely appreciate seeing that and again echo a lot of things that the other commissioners have said. I think at this time uh being no other commission comments commissioners, I'd like to ask from a motion from the floor uh to approve with the two conditions as stated in our reports. Do I have a motion from Commissioner Maza? Commissioner

Okay. I also see a second from uh here a second from Commissioner Blackwell. I'm going to go ahead and do roll call. That's Commissioner Blackwell. I thank you. Commissioner Burtonfall. I Commissioner um uh Commissioner Maza. Yes, I'm here. I uh Commissioner Gam. Hi. Thank you, Commissioner Kenttonia. Hi. Thank you. And Commissioner Woo. Hi. All right. Uh so I miss no one. Thank you so much for a great project and have a great rest of your day. Stay warm. Stay safe. Thank you.

You're very welcome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're very welcome. Have a great day. Bye. Uh so I will move on to the next agenda item for today which is the agenda item E director's report. And I understand that we do have a director's report for today. So I'm going to turn it over.

All right. Thanks commissioners. Uh we will be relatively quick. Um but you know just wanted to as we did um you know in the last commission meeting um there have been a number of changes in city planning leadership. um you know with the you know kind of change in administrations and so uh you know wanted to introduce uh you know as many of you already know uh you know the new zoning administrator in the department uh Carolyn Risto. I'll let you know give her the opportunity to you know basically you know kind of inform you of her her background and you know and some of the things that she you know wants to see as we move forward. Um you'll be seeing Carolyn um you know in in all of our commission meetings or almost all of our commission meetings moving forward. Um you know and um although the director wasn't able to be here uh in this meeting I don't think she's here just to double check before I say that for sure. Um yes uh you know although she wasn't able to to to make it today um you know her and Carolyn like I said you know will be um you know staff and leadership that you'll see here in the department uh at commission meetings uh moving forward. I'll hand it over to Carolyn.

Thanks Andrew. Um it's uh great to meet all of you commissioners that are here today. Um few of you are definitely familiar faces. Um, my name is Carolyn Rristau and I um have a fairly extensive background in in zoning and particularly in the city of Pittsburgh. Um, I first uh started working for the city of Pittsburgh in 2014 as um zoning counter staff um and spent a few years um as that front-facing position um dealing with applicants from um you know backyard fences um all the way up through new construction. Um I was then promoted to site plan review specialist. Um and so uh reviewed a lot of those middle ground uh projects. Too big for the counter but not quite big enough to come to planning commission. And I was also in my last few years um with the department um involved in a lot of the process improvements and um transition to um more robust digital presence uh for the for the department. I left uh the city in January 2019 and have held a variety of different roles since then. Um uh primarily consulting. Um I've um uh consulted with Michael Baker International for a few years helping to write zoning ordinances for municipalities across the state. I've done some consulting uh through my own LLC as well where I provided educational services on how to navigate Pittsburgh zoning ordinance um and helped architects and developers um get their applications um into um ready for application to zoning review with the city of Pittsburgh and um have also uh done a variety of diagnostic um analysis policies of

zoning ordinances uh through my own LLC most recently for Mount Lebanon uh um the municipality of Mount Lebanon. Um in addition to all those consulting things, I um uh have also done extensive research into the history of zoning in Pittsburgh in particular um but also um around the country. and I um have written an illustrated short story about the zoning process uh zoning adventures a home edition paper chase uh with the goal of trying to make zoning more accessible. Um, and I feel like that last statement sort of encapsulates my um, overall vision and goal um, is that I believe that zoning should be more accessible to everybody whether they are professionals that deal with this every day or um, homeowners or business uh, small businesses or residents who only deal with it, you know, maybe once in their life. Um, and so that's uh what I'm hoping uh we can work together moving forward to reach that goal for everybody who deals with Pittsburgh zoning ordinance. Well, thank you so much and welcome, welcome, welcome aboard. Uh, lots to do and we look forward to a lot of fun uh activity with you and engaging with you. Commissioners, are there comments? Would anybody like to say anything?

Just welcome and congratulations and um it feels like you're a blessing and look forward to working alongside you. Thank you. Same. I'd like to say welcome and also that I I don't know there's a single person in the city who knows uh you know more about zoning than than Carolyn. Um, and you know, not just the city's zoning code, but other zoning codes, um, in Pennsylvania. So, um, you know, uh, she's a fountain of knowledge and we're lucky to have her. I agree. I heard a lot of good things about you. It'll be nice working with you.

Thank you. Yeah. And I guess I would like to also say that I've worked with Carolyn and I think she is she's absolutely amazing, incredible and knowledgeable and um we've often had a lot of really great conversations very very nerdy about zoning which is fantastic and awesome. So we are very happy that you are that you are helping us uh in the city of Pittsburgh. Welcome. Thank you. Well, if you can dare to be 10 toes down about

zoning then you are already special. Okay. Uh so so we're so glad to have you. Uh again, welcome aboard. Uh this is going to be a fun um a fun season. So uh with that, I'll go ahead and close. Uh I guess this is the time where we do a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Are we all in favor? I I All right. Good stuff, folks.