For the first time in 20 years, Pittsburgh just got bigger. Well, the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area, that is.

The federal government added Lawrence County to the Pittsburgh MSA, in its most recent updates by The U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The entire eight-county MSA is now Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

Armstrong county was the last addition, in 2003. Butler County was added in 1993 and Fayette County joined the metro in 1983.

Benjamin Bush, CEO of Forward Lawrence — the combined brand for the Lawrence County Regional Chamber of Commerce and Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation — expects it to be a benefit.

“I think it’s a good thing for Lawrence County,” Bush said. “It will increase our visibility, increase our relationship with the MSA. Being a part of it will increase Lawrence County’s visibility to businesses to relocate.”

Christopher Briem, regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, said the decision on when to add counties is determined by commuting pattern data, meaning more Lawrence County residents work in areas that were already part of the MSA.

Bush noted it means that 25% of the county’s residents work in the Pittsburgh MSA and 25% of its workforce commutes from the Pittsburgh MSA.

In some ways, this change just codifies what many already consider to be the case — that Lawrence County is part of the Pittsburgh region.

Lawrence County is already part of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, which works on regional planning and decision-making and planning for administration of federal transportation dollars. It is also part of the 10 counties that are part of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which studies and markets the region.

“It kind of solidifies the relationship that are already ongoing,” said Bush, who became CEO of Forward Lawrence about three weeks ago.

He said while the designation does not bring specific financial benefits, it could still help as Lawrence participates with the rest of the region in seeking funding.

“Regional efforts are becoming the norm,” Bush said. “There will be the ability to join with the rest of the MSA to help bring funding back to the entire MSA and to Lawrence County.”

While Lawrence County is part of the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission for transportation purposes, as it is part of PennDOT District 11 that includes Allegheny, Beaver and Lawerence counties, it is part of the Northwest Commission for economic development efforts.

Amy McKinney, director of the Lawrence County Planning Department, does not know yet how the change might impact eco devo efforts. She noted her current contact for state funding through the DCED is through the Northwest Commission, based in Erie.

“We belong to Northwest and Southwest commissions. We are right in the middle. We handle (non-transportation) planning with the Northwest section. We don’t know what it means,” said McKinney. “I think it’s a benefit to be in both, to tell the truth. In the Southwest, we are a little fish in the big sea. In the Northwest, we are a little bigger fish and maintain a relationship with the rural counties.”

McKinney said she has fielded questions from commissioners and others about the impact on economic development, but at this point does not know whether it will change the county’s membership in the Northwest Commission down the road.

Another change in the most recent government designations was that Mercer County was removed from the Youngstown, Ohio, metro area, becoming a micropolitan statistical area on its own known as the Hermitage Micropolitan Area. Indiana County is also a micropolitan statistical area.

The micropolitan statistical area designation was created in 2003, at the same time Armstrong County was added to the Pittsburgh MSA.

Briem said being in a metropolitan area can help with site selection.

“Being in a metro area probably puts you on those lists more than not being in a metro area,” Briem said. “Creating micropolitan areas (helped) to expand the list that people are looking at.”

Another change for those studying regional patterns is that the full Pittsburgh-Weirton-Steubenville Combined Statistical Area is made up of the Pittsburgh MSA, the Weirton-Steubenville MSA (Jefferson County, Ohio, and Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia), plus the Hermitage and Indiana County micropolitan areas, for a total of 13 counties.

The core counties of the Pittsburgh MSA are designated as Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland.

Greene County remains one of 13 less-populace counties in the state that is not in a micropolitan or metropolitan statistical area.

View the full story at bizjorunals.com

The Pittsburgh Robotics Network today announced the appointment of Jenny Sharpe as the organization’s new senior program manager of workforce development. “In this role, Sharpe will draw on her vast experiences in entrepreneurship, talent management, and community building to strengthen the dynamic nexus of robotics, education, and community that is rapidly transforming Pittsburgh,” it said.

This role is in support of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s “Expanded Pathways to New Economy Careers” program, which is dedicated to expanding training and placement opportunities and eradicating barriers to employment. It is part of the comprehensive effort to drive regional economic growth, made possible by the $62.7 million in federal funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant.

“At Aurora, we’re proud to help foster Pittsburgh’s growing robotics sector,” stated Matt Blackburn, senior manager of government relations at autonomous vehicle developer Aurora and a Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) board member.

“In order to develop and deploy safe self-driving technology, we’re investing in the tremendous talent in the Pittsburgh area,” he added. “Jenny and the Pittsburgh Robotics Network have been doing incredible work to cultivate our region’s robotics workforce, and we look forward to continued collaboration that brings the benefits of autonomous vehicles to our communities.”

Sharpe brings entrepreneurial experience

Originally from Wisconsin, Sharpe’s own entrepreneurial journey brought her to Pittsburgh via Venture for America, a fellowship program that places recent graduates at startups in cities across the U.S. that are building thriving business communities. Sharpe learned more about talent management and workforce development at Rivers Agile, a tech consultancy firm, before taking on her current role at PRN.

“What really attracted me to the PRN was its ability to get a lot of organizations and partners to focus on what’s really important, which is creating a Pittsburgh that works for everyone,” said Sharpe. “I welcomed the opportunity to really build something.”

Sharpe said she also gained valuable insights from her tenure at EKTO VR, a Pittsburgh robotics startup that is developing an immersive and novel way to experience virtual reality. She noted that all of her experiences have helped her understand the complexities of attracting and retaining a highly-skilled workforce.

In addition, Sharpe said her goal is “not just to build bridges between the workforce and the robotics ecosystem, but also to ensure that these connections empower individuals and contribute to a Pittsburgh that works for everyone.”

“I love watching the individual transformation that can happen when you give someone the economic opportunity of a job, and not just any job, but a dream job,” she said. “I’m just really open. I’m here to learn. I’m here to listen and I’m here to create opportunities for more folks to collaborate.”

The PRN said Sharpe’s vision, plus her dedication to create opportunity and foster collaboration, will also help identify new ways to address community needs.

PRN to build more bridges

The Pittsburgh Robotics Network said it looks forward to Sharpe’s leadership in helping to advance Pittsburgh’s position as a world-leading cluster for robotics talent and industry growth. Already known as a city of bridges, Pittsburgh can build on its connections between academia, industry, and community, acccording to the PRN.

“We at the University of Pittsburgh are committed to supporting this important initiative, as it aligns with our own vision of fostering a culture of innovation and preparing our students for cutting-edge careers in technology and robotics,” said Bruce Childers, dean of the School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh and a PRN board member. “We believe that this effort will not only drive regional economic growth, but also further solidify Pittsburgh into a global hub for robotics talent and innovation.”

The Pittsburgh Robotics Network represents the companies and leaders who make up the Pittsburgh robotics ecosystem, which is anchored by Carnegie Mellon University and driven by 130+ robotics organizations, including the world’s leaders in autonomous vehicle development. The organization said its mission is to accelerate the adoption of robotics by bridging this large and dynamic community and the world. The PRN make connections, expands collective knowledge, and works to positively influence the advancement of robotic and artificial intelligence.

View the full story at robotics247.com

Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval Wednesday to Mayor Ed Gainey’s proposed new Office of Equal Protection, which the administration has said would help enforce civil rights and labor laws.

The office, as part of the wider mayor’s office, would be an “enforcement and compliance” body for matters such as the city’s paid sick leave and disruptive properties laws, said Zeke Rediker, an administration official.

Mr. Rediker, the city’s executive advisor on legal policy, would head the new office, which would also ensure companies are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, among other laws.

“We aim to establish what amounts to an office of public advocacy,” Mr. Rediker told Council on Wednesday.

Council still has to give its final approval to the new office, which could come as early as next Tuesday.

Mr. Gainey announced the new office earlier this month, saying it would protect the city’s “most vulnerable residents.”

“[The office] gives us the ability to make sure that everybody is following the laws,” he said at the time.

Mr. Gainey is forming the new office at a time when he has increasingly consolidated various city functions under his direct control, especially when it comes to how the government communicates and interacts with residents. The Post-Gazette reported earlier this month that the number of employees working under the purview of the mayor’s office has grown significantly.

The 311 call center and the city’s public access cable TV channel were both moved into the mayor’s office over the last year, and press officers from other departments have been moved to a new Office of Communications directly under Mr. Gainey.

Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said she felt “good” that the new office was in Mr. Rediker’s hands. But she expressed some wariness at yet another department being added to the mayor’s office.

“We’re seeing a lot of departments go under the mayor’s office,” she said Wednesday, adding that she’s concerned the new office will “become political.”

The office only has two employees so far: Mr. Rediker and Michelle Walker, the city’s new ADA coordinator. Because both of those positions were already in the city’s budget, the fiscal impact of the new office so far is zero, Mr. Rediker said — though he hopes to expand it in the future.

One of the office’s first steps will be focusing on commercial properties that qualify as disruptive. Officials have already worked with police and the city’s Office of Permits, Licenses and Inspections to identify the “most problematic properties” and create a strategy for how to deal with them, Mr. Rediker said.

Each of the laws the office seeks to enforce has its own enforcement mechanism baked into the legislation authorizing its creation, which will “make sure we can finally enforce the law,” Mr. Rediker said.

The office is also working on a form that will allow residents to submit complaints.

“Reach out to us, tell me where you feel you’re being discriminated against,” Mr. Gainey said earlier this month.

The ADA coordinator position was previously housed in the Department of City Planning, but was moved into the mayor’s office as part of its development of the Office of Equal Protection.

During the news conference announcing the new office, Mr. Gainey said moving that position into the mayor’s office would “keep our priorities moving and make it stay relevant.”

“The mayor himself, under the Home Rule Charter and under the City Code, is tasked with enforcing all of the laws in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Rediker said Wednesday.

Council this week also approved 11 of Mr. Gainey’s 12 nominees for the Commission on Infrastructure Asset Reporting and Investment.

The commission, tasked with identifying infrastructure projects that need immediate repairs and lobbying state and federal officials for funding, was created in the wake of the Fern Hollow Bridge Collapse. But it sat empty for over a year, until Mr. Gainey submitted his first nominees last week.

That came about a month after the Post-Gazette reported on the lack of action.

The only nominee not approved was Carrie Lewis DelRosso, a former Republican state representative who ran for lieutenant governor last year as Sen. Doug Mastriano’s running mate.

Ms. DelRosso, an Oakmont resident, has since become a lobbyist for Buchanan Ingersoll. Her nomination was withdrawn after lawmakers and community members raised concerns about her political affiliations.

Andy Waple, the executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, was nominated and approvedin her place. The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is a government cooperative of 10 counties and the City of Pittsburgh, which helps funnel state and federal dollars to infrastructure projects in the region.

The city’s new infrastructure commission still has nine more seats to be filled.

View the full story at post-gazette.com

As developers await the stabilization of the office market, they continue to gravitate toward housing and other uses in the popular Strip District neighborhood.

With new housing comes new residents. In a recently released State of the Strip District report, Strip District Neighbors — a nonprofit dedicated to promoting economic development and quality of life in the neighborhood — indicate the neighborhood’s population is expected to double again within the next two to three years.

The third annual report says the residential population, currently 3,214, has grown 316% since 2015.

“The Strip currently has 2,297 rental and for-sale units combined, 35 under construction and 2,111 units expected to deliver within the next few years,” the report reads. “Once these new units are completed, the Strip is poised to see its current residential population double again.”

In the report, Pamela Austin, president and board chair of Strip District Neighbors, notes the influx of entertainment venues — such as Puttshack, Puttery, Sandbox VR and City Winery, in the Terminal on Smallman Street, and reopening of Pittsburgh Winery in the Franklin on Penn building — have driven residential sales and retail openings.

“Brick-and-mortar storefronts continue to thrive in the Strip District, with 17 new retail and restaurants established in 2022, primarily along Smallman Street,” the report continues.

Eleven new shops, restaurants, financial services and event venues are also in the works.

Austin adds the completion of Forte Condominiums on Penn Avenue added to the “sizable portion of for-sale home transactions,” and mentioned the addition of notable institutions — the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and the Richard K. Mellon Foundation, as well as Oshkosh Corp. that are also fueling the boom.

The Strip District is part of the “Downtown Fringe” submarket, which accounts for 15% of all Pittsburgh’s office inventory, according to the report.

While the area is in high demand, the report says there is substantial space to fill the most recent office developments in the neighborhood — Oxford’s 75 Hopper Place at 3 Crossings and Burns Scalo Real Estate’s Vision on Fifteenth.

In an effort to combat “extreme headwinds” in the office market caused by corporations giving back space, downsizing, hybrid work-from-home models and interest rates and inflation, city officials have passed legislation to streamline the zoning process to convert office space to residential space.

The city has also piloted a $9 million residential conversion program in partnership with the state and county.

View the full article at pittsburghmagazine.com

Despite a waning office market and struggles by the companies of Robotics Row, people keep moving into the Strip District.

That’s one of big take aways of the new State of the Strip Report for 2023, an annual neighborhood benchmarking exercise by Strip District Neighbors, a community organization.

“The Strip District continues to transform as a residential community,” said Pam Austin, president of Strip District Neighbors, at an event July 13 to announce the report’s basic findings at Cadence on Smallman Street. “Our pipeline is the most abundant in the city.”

According to the new report, the population of the Strip District grew by 316% since 2015, reaching an estimated total population of 3,214 residents, a figure that’s grown dramatically in part due to demand and in part since before a recent boom in the past 20 years, it was a neighborhood with very little residential population at all.

Given high asking rents and a recent residential sale that eclipsed $2 million for the first time, the report projects the Strip District’s population will double again in the next two to three years, based on a pipeline of 2,111 residential units in the works for the urban fringe neighborhood along the Allegheny River, with many projects announced or approved by the city along Smallman Street in the past 18 months.

Average apartment rents in the Strip District range from $1,520 for a studio to more than $2,800 for a two-bedroom unit, according to the report.

The report totaled up 17 new restaurants and retailers that opened in the Strip District in the last year, many of them opening in the Strip District Terminal — City Winery, Sandbox VR, among others — as well as elsewhere along Smallman Street.

It was an expansion trend that significantly outpaced only two retail closures in the last year.

The neighborhood’s office market, once one of the most active places in the region for new office development, drawing in a variety of major tech firms, has not fared as well, in keeping with the office sector as a whole.

The report noted “extreme headwinds” in the office market even as it welcomed some significant newcomers to the neighborhood, noting the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission inked new offices at the Strip District Terminal and Oshkosh Corp. set up an innovation center in the tech flex Factory 26.

View the full article at bizjournals.com

Bike Share Pittsburgh, the nonprofit operator of POGOH bikeshare, is installing 22 new POGOH stations through July and is launching 154 new e-assist bikes and 66 pedal bikes into their fleet.

In addition to creating more connections within the current network, the new stations will connect several new neighborhoods, including Hazelwood, Larimer, Garfield, Upper Lawrenceville, Allegheny Center and Central Northside.

The growth of the bikeshare network is made possible by a Federal Highway Administration grant for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ). The grant request was supported locally by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the City of Pittsburgh.

“Because POGOH riders need to both rent and return their bikes at one of our stations, we need a lot of stations to make the system convenient. This expansion is focused on increasing the convenience of our network, and better connecting more neighborhoods to bikeshare,” said David White, executive director of Bike Share Pittsburgh, in a press release. “This twenty-two station expansion is a meaningful step towards our vision to have POGOH stations in every neighborhood in the City and eventually extend to many inner ring municipalities.”

The new station locations have received approval from city council and permits from the City of Pittsburgh.

For more information about Bike Share Pittsburgh and the 2023 station expansion, visit pogoh.com.

View the full story at wpxi.com

Federal, state, and local officials are highlighting the impact of a major federal grant program to help combat climate change.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan joined Congresswoman Susan Wild, D-7th, Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, and other local officials and representatives at the waterfront in Allentown on Tuesday to discuss the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program.

The $5 billion CPRG program provides resources for states, tribes, territories and municipalities to develop and implement solutions to protect people from pollution and advance environmental justice.

The two-stage grant program is part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, and includes $250 million in funding for planning grants, along with $4.6 billion for competitive implementation grants.

Regan said in a statement that tackling the climate crisis “demands a sense of urgency to protect people and the planet,” adding that efforts like the CPRG program are “an unprecedented opportunity to provide communities like Allentown with resources to develop innovative strategies that address worsening climate change impacts, create good paying jobs, and deliver economic benefits for all.”

Through the program, Pennsylvania and the other states will each receive $3 million in grant funding, which will be used to identify opportunities to reduce climate pollution, promote clean energy, and develop strategies to drive economic benefits, according to a release from Wild’s office.

Locally the Lehigh Valley, through the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, will receive $1 million to foster regional collaboration and help the region’s municipalities tackle pollution while generating economic growth, and also to update or create climate, energy, or sustainability plans.

Regarding investment opportunities, Tuerk said that “For too long, middle-class communities like Allentown have missed out on opportunities to make investments that lower the cost of energy efficiency and ensure an equitable future for residents.”

Wild said she was proud to see investments coming to the Greater Lehigh Valley region, and she said the grant program, “is going to help this city, Allentown, as well as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, start on a path towards a more sustainable future – and will also help to create good-paying jobs in the immediate.”

In May, LVPC Executive Director Becky Bradley spoke with WDIY about how the planning commission was able to secure its $1 million allotment, as under the CPRG program, only the 67 most populous metropolitan areas in the country were eligible to receive this money.

“Well we’re the 69th largest region in the Untied States. New Haven, Connecticut was the 68th,” Bradley explained. “We didn’t want to accept that, so we were going to work with EPA to try to come up with some other way to get access to that funding.

“Because of those advocacy efforts, and because some states who were also eligible for the funding decided not to file their notice of intent, we were able to go and get $1 million for climate action.”

The funding awards were announced in April by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which said that two other planning commissions – the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission – would also receive $1 million each.

Bradley said the LVPC would use the money to work on the regional climate action plan, with elements including a regional green infrastructure program, alternative fuel strategies, air quality monitors, improved walking and biking, and increased investment in LANTA, among other measures.

The EPA says Priority Climate Action Plans are due by March 1, 2024, and that applications for the general implementation grants competition will likely be due around the beginning of April 2024.

View the full article at wdiy.org

Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Vicites put the county on display Monday by hosting the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission meeting at the Fay-Penn Economic Development Council office.

Vicites serves as SPC secretary-treasurer.

The organization has moved recent meetings while its Pittsburgh Strip District offices are undergoing renovations.

“This is the first time in history that a meeting has been held here with public parties,” Vicites said.

He said officials from Butler, Armstrong, Washington, Allegheny and Greene counties attended the session.

More than 40 people attended the 75-minute session, including several members via internet.

The Fay-Penn site in Lemont Furnace provided video technical applications.

Joseph Ambrose of Republic Food Enterprises said his company’s affiliations with farms of all sizes creates second-source revenue for value-added products in southwestern Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia and Maryland.

Ambrose catered the event.

Laura Kurtz Kuhns, Fay-Penn executive director, discussed such Fayette County attractions as the Joseph Hardy Connellsville Airport, Fort Necessity and Fallingwater.

She said Fallingwater has been named among the nation’s most loved attractions. The house near Mill Run was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is considered to be his residential masterpiece.

Dom D’Andrea, director of transportation planning for the region’s long-range plan, outlined topics discussed in recent weeks during Fayette County commissioners’ meetings.

He said the planning sequence that runs through 2025 is reviewed every four years.

SPC members unanimously endorsed highway bridge investments, new transit investments and air quality conformity determination.

Major attention through investments will be given to Interstate highways 79, 70 and 376. In the long term, roughly $2.2 billion is expected for highway improvements.

A Vision Zero Plan will be implemented for Allegheny County, with a goal of achieving zero deaths or serious injuries from motor vehicle accidents.

Allegheny County has had more than half of the serious accidents in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

A Competitive Economy Infrastructure and Technology for Sustainable and Resilient Communities program is expected to focus on workforce assistance in areas of need.

View the full article at dailycourier.com

[…]

Aurora Sharrard
Executive director of sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh
Aurora Sharrard is the first-ever sustainability ED role for the University of Pittsburgh. This entails overseeing sustainability staff and the university’s sustainability efforts, policies, and partnerships related to its sustainability strategy. Sharrard was previously the Green Building Alliance’s executive director for 11 years and cofounded the Pittsburgh 2030 District, a network designed to ensure that communities and buildings are sustainable. In her spare time Sharrard is a board member for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services and co-chairs the Pittsburgh’s Higher Education Climate Consortium.

[…]

View the full article at technical.ly

In June 2019, the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission — the metropolitan planning organization for the area that includes Butler County — adopted a long-range transportation plan called “SmartMoves for a Changing Region.” The 25-year plan called for $35 billion in transportation and infrastructure improvements in the commission’s 10-county area.

Federal law requires planning organizations to update the plan at least every four years. As part of these efforts, the commission held a virtual meeting with residents of Butler County to gather public opinion on long-term transportation and infrastructure issues in the county.

The meeting for Butler County residents was the 10th out of 11 scheduled public meetings on the plan, with another held for the city of Pittsburgh.

The SmartMoves update is currently in the 30-day public comment period, and the commission is hoping to finalize the update by June 26.

“Public involvement is very critical and is the beginning and ending of the process to update the long range transportation plan,“ said Ryan Gordon, commission manager of Transportation Program Development.

Projects in the long-range transportation plan are divided into three stages. Stage 1 is for projects in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) which are projected for completion within the next three years. Stages 2 and 3 are for projects with much wider scope and are “much more conceptual in nature,” and are scheduled for completion between 2027 and 2050.

“We are going to have a number of TIP updates before we even get to 2035,” Gordon said. “So just keep in mind that this time frame represents numerous TIP updates and extends all the way to 2050.”

According to Gordon, many projects in the SmartMoves plan are still in Stage 2 or 3. However, some improvement projects in Butler County have moved from Stage 2 to the Stage 1. These include series of safety improvement projects along Route 228, such as the Balls Bend improvement project and the Three Degree Road intersection improvement.

Other projects currently in the Stage 1 phase include signal replacements along Route 68, as well as improvements to various small bridges in Butler County such as the Geibel Road bridge in Summit Township and Callery Bridge in Callery.

The commission is seeking additional funding for projects to improve the Karns Crossing Bridge and the Picklegate Crossing viaduct, among other bridges and roadways.

“Bridges continue to be a large percentage of the investment in the region, and Butler County is no different,” Gordon said.

After meeting with the Butler Transit Authority, the commission identified transit needs for the county which it estimates will amount to $108 million over the life of the SmartMoves plan. This includes $73.1 million in operating and maintenance costs, $32.2 million for buses and other vehicles, and $2.7 million for facilities.

Projects high on the priority list include two more park-and-ride facilities for commuter service direct to Pittsburgh — one in Evans City and one on Stevenson Road in Renfrew. Combined, these would cost $3.75 million to design and construct. $120,000 has also been budgeted for bus shelter upgrades.

The commission is still allowing the public to submit comments on the SmartMoves plan until Friday, June 9. Comments can be submitted by email at comments@spcregion.org or by fax at 412-391-9160.