The Preservation of Pittsburgh Master Plan to Guide Neighborhood Transformation
When the Pittsburgh neighborhood became ground zero for the foreclosure crisis in Atlanta, the Atlanta Civic Site began working with partners to stabilize and revitalize the neighborhood. Together, these partners have acquired 95 vacant properties and rehabbed 18 using public and private funding.
This summer, Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association (PCIA), the neighborhood’s community development corporation, rehabbed five homes, using public HOME funding. PCIA is now rebuilding five additional homes under the same program. Once completed, PCIA will transfer them into the Pittsburgh Community Land Trust as either rental or sale properties to ensure long-term affordability in the community.
To guide the work in Pittsburgh, the partners worked with residents and others to develop the Preservation of Pittsburgh Master Plan, the final draft of which was presented in June. A group of resident leaders has begun to implement three demonstration projects, including the creation of a fruit and vegetable stand where residents can sell the produce they are growing in community gardens; a mural to be painted by residents along the neighborhood’s main corridor; and an initiative to help residents bring their homes into code compliance. Graduate students from the Georgia Institute of Technology School of City and Regional Planning are providing technical assistance to these and other planned demonstration projects.
