Pittsburgh to spend $1.8M on master plan for controversial public safety training center

Pittsburgh will move ahead with plans for a controversial public safety training facility to be built in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood.

Dozens of residents in recent weeks have urged City Council to pause plans for a massive public safety training center that officials estimate could cost about $86 million.

Some residents said they worry the sprawling campus — which many derided as a “cop city” — would be used to militarize police. Others questioned spending so much money on a new training site as the city grapples with a decrepit vehicle fleet, aging infrastructure and homelessness.

But council on Monday unanimously voted to spend $1.8 million on a master plan for the 168-acre site, which formerly housed the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Health Care System.

Council members last week voted to amend the bill in an effort to address residents’ concerns.

Stipulations bar the master plan from including facilities to train federal law enforcement or foreign militaries, intelligence services or law enforcement agencies.

New caveats added to the measure also prohibit any simulated environment where officers would be trained for “urban warfare” or occupying cities.

The plan will include a K-9 training facility, an indoor firing range, emergency vehicle storage, training classrooms for all public safety bureaus, an emergency vehicle operations course, an evidence warehouse, a fire burn tower, an indoor pool and storage for salt and winter weather equipment.

The measure council approved Monday would mandate the plan consider how to make the facilities open to the public “to the greatest extent possible.”

It also bans Henningson Durham & Richardson, the company conducting the master plan, from surveilling residents and manipulating public opinion after Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, raised concerns about HDR doing so in other cities.

The Omaha, Neb.-based company helped build the new Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park after the span collapsed in Jan. 2022 and is involved in Pittsburgh International Airport’s new terminal project.

Councilman Khari Mosley, D-Point Breeze, said he and his colleagues had to balance concerns from residents with a ticking clock.

When the city acquired the property from the federal government, its agreement included a provision that required a master plan be completed by next June. If that is not done, the federal government could seize control of the site. Some local officials said they worried the Trump administration could convert it to an immigration detention facility.

“This was not the time to punt on this property and hand it back over to a very hostile federal government,” Mosley said.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, said police need a good place to train.

Currently, the city rents some training spaces, while others are small and cramped. Firefighters have to travel outside of the city to complete their training.