Groups oppose housing proposal at former Irish Centre site in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill

A proposed apartment development at the former Irish Centre site in Pittsburgh has drawn the ire of two community groups.

The Squirrel Hill complex, a former community center near Frick Park’s Nine Mile Run trail, was put on the market a few years ago. A recent proposal calls for constructing a 162-unit, eight-story apartment building on the site.

The proposed development would include a pool, fitness center, outdoor space and a 182-space parking lot. Developers are seeking a zoning variance before a sale is completed.

Two neighborhood groups — Frick Park Friends and Upstream Pittsburgh — are asking the city’s zoning board of adjustments to reject the variance request.

Frick Park Friends, a community group that formed this year, is gathering signatures and calling on neighbors to oppose the Irish Centre proposal. The group argues on its website that the development proposal is out of character with the park location, traffic congestion on Commercial Street will increase and landslides and flooding will damage any new development.

“It is important to maintain the scenic ribbon of the area by returning the land to Frick Park or developing within the park zoning requirements,” it says on the Frick Park Friends website.

The Irish Centre site has been empty for years, and housing has been proposed at the 4-acre site in the past.

The latest would-be developers, Toronto-based Craft General, said during a May community meeting that Squirrel Hill needs more housing to provide more opportunities to live in the desirable neighborhood. The apartment building will mostly include two-bedroom units.

Upstream Pittsburgh, a steward of the Nine Mile Run watershed, said it opposes the proposed development because it “has the potential for direct and detrimental impacts to the Nine Mile Run aquatic ecosystem restoration” and would affect the scenic landscape of the area and increase traffic congestion.

The $7.7 million aquatic ecosystem restoration project was completed in 2006.

“While we understand the need for more housing, this proposed development in a park zoning district, essentially within Frick Park and containing Nine Mile Run, absolutely feels like the wrong place for it,” Upstream Pittsburgh Director Michael Hiller wrote in a letter to the zoning board.

Another group said Pittsburgh is in desperate need for new, high-quality housing, and those needs should also be considered.

David Vatz of the group Pro-Housing Pittsburgh supports the project and told the Tribune-Review in May that increasing the housing supply on a vacant lot should help keep housing prices down in a popular neighborhood such as Squirrel Hill.

He questioned Upstream’s opposition because he said the project would likely improve stormwater issues through the redevelopment of the site.

“The new development will improve stormwater issues on the site. It’ll be regraded, include green roofs and also give the Nine Mile Run channel back to the city,” Vatz said on Twitter.

The proposed Irish Centre apartment building will be discussed at the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s July 6 meeting.