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Motion expressing the Sense of Council of Allegheny County, commending the Pittsburgh Board of Education, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Mt. Washington Community Development Corporation, and the Mt. Washington neighborhood for working cooperatively to preserve the South Hills High School and supporting the neighborhood plan to reuse the facility for senior housing and services that will support the neighborhood and tenants.
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WHEREAS, built in 1916 at Ruth and Eureeka Streets in Mt. Washington, the South Hills High School was designed by the internationally famous firm of Alden and Harlow (Carnegie Institute, 1895) and has been an architectural and social landmark for the neighborhood for eighty-nine years; and
WHEREAS, closed by the Pittsburgh Board of Education in 1986, the high school building has sat empty for eighteen years while the Mt. Washington Community Development Corporation and the Board of Education have sought qualified developers for the building; and
WHEREAS, the site has been designated as a Keystone Enterprise Opportunity Expansion Zone as a means to encourage development, place the property back on the tax rolls, and alleviate the blighted property's impact on the neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, an extensive neighborhood-driven study identified renovation based on community use as the most desirable use of this historic structure; completed in 2004, the study proposed the development of seventy to eighty senior housing units and auxiliary services that would support the tenants and neighborhood residents; and
WHEREAS, auxiliary services would include a cafeteria, computer room, beauty shop, doctors' offices, a professionally-managed wellness center, medically-related for-profit businesses, flex space for community use, and loft-type apartments; and
WHEREAS, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, acting as the sales agent for the building, prepared a request for qualifications, contacting 20 development companies t...
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