Zoning change to allow more townhouses supported by Pittsburgh Planning Commission

A proposal that would make it easier to build attached housing — like townhomes and rowhouses — in Pittsburgh earned unanimous support from the Planning Commission on Tuesday.

The legislation now will be sent to City Council for a final vote.

The zoning change, spearheaded by Councilman Bobby Wilson, D-North Side, would tweak a provision that doesn’t permit attached residences to be built in areas zoned for only detached housing. The measure would permit townhomes and other attached housing in lots that are 35 feet wide or smaller in neighborhoods zoned for detached housing. Developers could seek an exemption for lots larger than 35 feet wide.

Officials have said adding more attached housing could be one small piece of a larger effort to bolster the city’s affordable housing.

The plan received mixed opinions from members of the public who spoke before the Planning Commission on Tuesday.

Some residents questioned criticized using a one-size-fits-all approach to make a sweeping citywide zoning change, rather than looking at the unique situations each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods may face.

Others voiced concerns that the move would increase density in their neighborhoods and potentially bring about more competition for limited parking spots or “crowd the neighborhood.”

Some residents also questioned whether it was appropriate to make a zoning change now, when the city recently invested $6.2 million into a citywide comprehensive plan that will likely result in new zoning amendments.

One Pittsburgh resident, David Demko, described it as a “sweeping zoning change” with “too many hypotheticals to consider.”

Other residents, however, applauded the effort to provide more variety of housing options.

The bill provides the opportunity “to effectively use limited land resources to create the necessary affordable housing that our city needs,” said Ed Nusser, executive director of City of Bridges Community Land Trust, which is working to build an affordable housing development with attached housing.

“Creating these artificial limits of how much housing can be built in our neighborhoods based on zoning from half a century ago impacts the health and vibrancy of our city and means fewer and fewer people can call Pittsburgh home,” he said.

Nusser said this is particularly important now, as the median home cost in Pittsburgh increased about 25% since 2019.

“We need to make it easier to build the housing our neighbors desperately need,” said Emma Gamble, who works with Lawrenceville United. The zoning code, she said, can be “a barrier to our affordable housing goals… by making it illegal or difficult” to build certain types of housing.

Commissioner Rachel O’Neill said she understood the concerns some residents voiced, but said this measure really is about eliminating an “unnecessary” zoning obstacle.

Currently, the zoning code allows for houses to be built up to 3 feet from the lot line, she said. The proposed change allows those houses to instead be built connected. In essence, she said, it’s a difference of 3 feet.

“If we want to grow the city’s population again, it needs to be easier to build new housing,” Commissioner Phillip Wu said. “It just isn’t economically feasible in many cases to build detached housing in this market and in a way that people can actually afford.”