Pittsburgh City Council approves plan to designate 6 greenways as city parks

Six greenways, spanning more than 300 acres, will now become parks, after city council on Tuesday approved a measure to add the green spaces to Pittsburgh’s park system.

The new park space will be created in neighborhoods including Allentown, Beechview, Brookline, Glen Hazel, Greenfield, Hazelwood, the Hill District, Mount Washington, Overbook, Polish Hill and the South Side Slopes.

This will allow the city to invest in redeveloping and maintaining the existing greenways, defined as areas of “permanent, passive open space.”

Council unanimously voted to approve the measure, despite concerns voiced last week about the lack of public process. There was no public hearing on the matter and Councilman Anthony Coghill, whose district encompasses three of the greenways that are becoming parks, said he hadn’t heard of the proposal until he spoke with the Tribune-Review about it.

Naming the parks and crafting park plans — steps that come after council’s approval — will include more public engagement, city Planning Director Andrew Dash said.

Five of the greenways will now become independent parks. The sixth will be a major expansion of Brookline’s Moore Park, which will grow from 12 acres to 52 acres.

Coghill has said he’d like to see the park space in his district — including the added space in Moore Park, as well as new parks in Beechview and Overbrook — remain natural green space, rather than adding playgrounds or ballparks.

This comes after council recently approved a contract extension with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. That contract will expand the scope of the nonprofit’s work to include all city parks, rather than only its biggest ones.