Charles Taylor said he loves working in Pittsburgh’s Bakery Square.

The operations manager at City Kitchen was originally from Larimer, but moved away to find work in the 1990s. He said there were no good jobs in the area then, but he’s glad there are now.

“I just love coming to work here,” he said. “It gives this side of the city a little bit of hope.”

As a Black man, Taylor said, he loves the diversity he sees in the bustling development.

“This is the most diverse place I’ve worked in,” Taylor said. “I’ve never sensed any type of prejudice.”

Taylor said he supports a proposal that would expand Bakery Square’s footprint.

“I believe it will bring more jobs and bring more people back into the East Side of Pittsburgh,” he said. “I think it’ll bring opportunities for people to work, people to live. There’s not a lot on this side of town but Bakery Square.”

Pittsburgh-based developer Walnut Capital is looking to nearly double the size of its Bakery Square development, which first opened in 2009. It now sits on 20 acres in the city’s Larimer and Shadyside neighborhoods and includes commercial development and housing.

Zoning legislation introduced last month would clear the way for Walnut Capital to extend Bakery Square’s office, residential and retail development and improve street and traffic patterns. The measure would expand the specially planned district to an adjacent 14-acre site Walnut Capital owns in Larimer and East Liberty.

State Rep. La’Tasha Mayes, D-Morningside, said she is opposed to expanding a development that she feels could contribute to displacing existing residents and making people of color feel unwelcome in their own neighborhoods.

“Bakery Square’s very insular,” Mayes said. “I don’t see myself in Bakery Square currently or in the vision for Bakery Square going forward. Bakery Square is not a place for community members who have long lived in East Liberty and Larimer and other connected communities. Bakery Square’s not for Black people.”

Mayes said she was frustrated that specific project details — including building heights and traffic impact studies — have not yet been released.

“I think transparency and accountability is what’s needed to create the kind of equitable development that we talk about doing,” she said. “I want my constituents to feel there is a benefit for them, that they’re welcome in all parts of the 24th Legislative District. I think we’d be naïve to say that’s the case now.”

K. Chase Patterson, board chair for the Larimer Consensus Group, said he felt Mayes’ concerns “are reasonable and justifiable,” but will be addressed in a community benefits agreement that the community group has helped to craft with the developer.

A preliminary draft of the agreement obtained by the Tribune-Review included a commitment from Walnut Capital to designate 5% of rental units at the site as “workforce housing,” which will be affordable for people making between 80% and 120% of the area median income.

According to the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, 80% of the area median income ranges from $56,250 a year for an individual to $106,000 a year for a family of eight.

The community benefits agreement also includes a commitment from Walnut Capital to provide $6 million and help raise a total of $25 million for an initiative dubbed the Build 100 Fund. The goal is to develop and sell 100 homes in the Larimer and East Liberty neighborhoods.

Ultimately, Patterson said, the developer’s commitments to support the community and the success of the existing Bakery Square development “adequately and appropriately address” any concerns he may have had.

He said he feels the benefits agreement and expanded development “will have a significant impact on the transformation and revitalization of the Larimer community” and could help support minority-owned businesses.

Mayes said she had not seen or been involved with the community benefits agreement and declined to comment on whether it would change her mind about the project.

“My administration has been working hard to ensure that affordability is built into development plans and that we create developments that are equitable, accessible and lift up everyone who lives in a neighborhood,” Mayor Ed Gainey said in a statement. “We want to utilize our tools as city government to ensure that economic development in Pittsburgh creates opportunities everyone can access so that our neighbors, who have lived in their communities for generations, can continue to do so.”

The mayor said he hoped developers and community groups “continue to work together on a plan and investment strategy that will achieve these goals.”

Val Palmer, who heads the Village Collaborative of East Liberty, said most of the feedback she’s heard from the community has been positive and she doesn’t have any specific concerns about the development. She declined to comment further, explaining she was still listening for additional community input.

Nick Yakubisin, who works in management at City Kitchen, said he rejected the notion that the development wasn’t inclusive. Over half of City Kitchen’s more than 50 employees are minorities, he said, and they serve a “diverse” crowd including people of various ethnicities, races and economic statuses.

“I feel like (the proposed expansion) is going to create even more opportunity for people,” he said. “Bakery Square is a vibrant community. Everybody feels really good about being at Bakery Square every day.”

A representative from Walnut Capital said there would be a significant public process as the proposal moves forward.

The city’s Planning Commission will review the proposed expansion before the measure returns to City Council.

Councilman Ricky Burgess, D-Point Breeze, voiced support for the proposed expansion when he introduced the corresponding legislation last month.

“This expansion of Bakery Square is vital to the rebuilding of Larimer, the rebuilding of Homewood, the rebuilding of Lincoln-Lemington,” the councilman said when the measure was introduced. “This is going to be a historic development.”

Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development Inc., said in a statement that Bakery Square’s proposed expansion will have “a positive and transformative impact” on Pittsburgh’s East End.

The existing Bakery Square development sits at the former site of a Nabisco facility, which closed in 1998 after eight decades. The last owner of the site declared bankruptcy in 2004, and the factory sat empty and became blighted. Walnut Capital then purchased the property in 2007.

In 2013, the developer expanded the development by purchasing the former Reizenstein Middle School, which closed in 2006.

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