Pittsburgh poised to turn Hays Woods into newest city park

Pittsburgh is poised to take ownership of Hays Woods and turn it into the city’s newest public park.

City Council on Wednesday advanced legislation that would allow the city to buy the land from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for $1 plus costs.

“This is going to be a really unique park for not only the city, but the region,” said Councilman Corey O’Connor, whose district includes Hays Woods.

“It’s not really planned to have ballfields and things like that,” O’Connor added. “It’s more trails, almost like a huge nature preserve. That’s something really unique to the area.”

The URA bought the site five years ago for $5 million, a fraction of what it was worth, from Beaver County businessman Chuck Betters. The city’s plan all along was to designate all or most of the land as public parkland.

With 642 acres of the rolling, heavily wooded land within Pittsburgh’s city limits, Hays Woods would become the city’s second-largest public park in Pittsburgh behind Frick Park, which is 644 acres.

The site historically served industrial purposes, including coal mining, according to city officials. It’s now home to various plants, trees and animals, as well as several trails, that make it a popular destination for hikers and nature-lovers. It’s perhaps best known as the home of the Hays eagles, a pair of bald eagles who have laid eggs there for about a decade and whose activities can be seen online via a webcam. The eagles were the first pair of bald eagles to nest within Pittsburgh’s city limits in at least 150 years.

Had things worked out differently for Betters after he bought the site in 2003, the site would not have remained a nature-lover’s paradise. He initially had proposed a horse racetrack, casino and other development on the site once he strip-mined it for any remaining coal, but he failed to gain necessary approval from the state to proceed.

In 2018, Mayor Bill Peduto launched a task force to develop a plan for the site in anticipation of its future as a public park. Plans are still being finalized, particularly as they relate to access points and parking, O’Connor said. One of the main goals is to ensure the variety of animal species within the woods are protected, he said.

“The views you have are just spectacular,” he said. “It’s another unique thing we’re going to have in the City of Pittsburgh.”