Hays Woods purchase gets final OK, to be Pittsburgh's 2nd largest park

Hays Woods is set to become Pittsburgh’s next public park, after City Council voted Monday to authorize the city to take ownership of the 624-acre site.

Pittsburgh will buy the property from the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority for $1, plus costs. The URA bought the site in the city’s Hays neighborhood five years ago for $5 million, a fraction of what it was worth, from Beaver County businessman Chuck Betters.

The city has been planning all along to designate all or most of the property as public parkland.

It will become the city’s second largest public park, behind Frick Park, which spans 644 acres.

City officials plan to maintain the area as something of a nature preserve, Councilman Corey O’Connor has said. The park will be “something really unique to the area,” said O’Connor, whose district includes Hays Woods.

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.

It’s perhaps best known as the home of the Hays eagles, a pair of bald eagles who have laid eggs on the property for about a decade. They are the first pair of bald eagles to nest within the city limits in at least 150 years, and their activities are popularly captured through a webcam.

Before offering up the plot of land to the city, Betters had sought to use it for a horse racetrack, casino and other developments after strip-mining it for any remaining coal. He failed to earn the state’s approval for such endeavors.

Plans for the future park are still being finalized, according to O’Connor, as officials work out details like parking and access points. They are committed to protecting the variety of animal species within the woods, he said.