Penn Hills, Allegheny Land Trust team up to protect wooded areas

Penn Hills municipal staff is working with a nonprofit to figure out how to better protect 143 acres of wooded land that is unable to be developed.

Council approved a resolution in February allowing Penn Hills staff to work with the Allegheny Land Trust on three separate sections of land in the northern part of the municipality. Councilman Gary Underwood dissented, saying the agreement was unnecessary.

All the areas currently are zoned for conservation purposes. Planner Chris Blackwell said the land was deeded to the municipality by residential developers after learning the properties were unusable.

“Once developed, the unusable portions were deeded to Penn Hills as open space, pocket parks and vacant land. Besides providing open space for residents, some of these gifts have left the municipality vulnerable to … maintenance issues,” Blackwell wrote in a memo to council.

Planner Damien Buccilli said the agreement with Allegheny Land Trust will ensure those lands are preserved and maintained for educational and recreational purposes.

One of the wooded areas near Penn Hills Community Park along Hunter Road could get a hiking trail system.

“We’d like to have trails that connect to Penn Hills Park – really a system of trails and signs,” Buccilli said.

He said it is too early to know exactly how the land will be used.

Moving forward, he said, the municipality is considering selling, leasing or deeding the land to the Allegheny Land Trust.

The trust, based in Sewickley, has been stewarding more than 2,000 acres in Allegheny and Washington counties since 1993.

Tom Dougherty, vice president of development and external affairs, said the organization has met with Penn Hills staff to begin talking about the vision for the properties, but nothing is set in stone.

“We’re in the planning stages … we haven’t made any type of agreements for the property,” he said.