Pittsburgh is a city of 90 neighborhoods that has never had a single, coordinated plan that details what should be done to improve it.

That’s set to change in the next year, as city officials Tuesday announced a comprehensive land-use planning effort they call ForgingPGH.

The approach was used in the 1960s and 1920s, but hasn’t been pursued since Pittsburgh has dealt with the decline of the steel industry and the lost of its manufacturing base, said Mayor Bill Peduto.

“During the 1980s, during the 1990s, the beginning of the 2000s, there wasn’t much investment happening in the City of Pittsburgh,” Peduto said. “We were playing defense. We were trying to save our city and keep our head above the water.”

The idea of taking the time to work on a plan that sought input from people about what they’d like to see in their neighborhood wasn’t considered. There was no real hope for development, he said.

“Now we’re at a different phase … where investment is happening all over the city,” Peduto said.

According to the mayor, city officials face a choice: They can continue to work with developers who have their own plans for what they want to do in the city and work to meet their needs. “Or we can change the way that we do urban planning in the city of Pittsburgh. We can play offense,” Peduto said.

Over the course of the next year, the city will seek public input from people who live in each of the city’s neighborhoods to craft a land-use plan that will guide future development, said Andrew Dash, director of the Department of City Planning.

As part of the plan, officials released a 44-page report that details the city’s past and present and a neighborhood data visualization tool. The tool provides information about each of the neighborhoods.

The city will be hiring two consultants, each of which will be paid about $100,000, to evaluate the city’s housing needs and work on an economic development plan, Dash said.

The process will take about a year and will forecast how the city can best use its land over the next two decades, he said.

The plan will also take into consideration issues of equity and systemic racism during the process, Peduto said.

“We can put into our urban plans a model that breaks away from generations of disinvestment in our Black communities,” Peduto said. “We can turn that model into a different model. One that looks through the lens of equity in assuring that everyone has a place at the table for the future of Pittsburgh.”

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