Planning commission approves plan to renovate Upper Lawrenceville firehouse plus mixed-income housing, retail

Pittsburgh’s planning commission on Tuesday approved plans for a development that will revitalize a former firehouse and bring mixed-income housing and other amenities.

Illinois-based Albion Residential is planning to bring to new life a former firehouse on Butler Street and add a new 354,000-square-foot apartment complex on a site that is vacant.

The existing two-story firehouse — which dates to 1890 and once housed Pittsburgh’s Engine Company No. 9 — is set to see masonry repairs, new windows and interior renovations, according to plans presented to the planning commission. It will be revitalized to house about 1,900 square feet of retail space.

A new apartment building will be built next to the firehouse. It’s slated to include 265 residential units, 10% of which will be affordable housing for people making no more than half of the area median income.

Market-rate units at the site will range from $1,400 per month for a studio apartment to more than $3,000 per month for a two-bedroom unit, the development team told commissioners.

The affordable housing element is mandated for the project because it sits within an inclusionary zoning area.

Two percent of units will be fully accessible for people with disabilities, and other units will be adaptable so they could be converted to various levels of accessibility, according to plans presented to the commission.

The site also will feature 3,700 square feet of retail space and a public lobby where people can gather and use the building’s Wi-Fi. There will be a new bus shelter, pedestrian safety improvements, a lit bike path, outdoor seating, public art, a green roof and a bike repair area.

The developer also will build and maintain a free, public dog park behind the firehouse.

The development will include 200 off-street parking spaces and 100 bicycle parking spots.

Andrew Moss, an architect and Lawrenceville resident, voiced concerns about the proposal during Tuesday’s planning commission meeting. He argued the four-story building would be “entirely out of scale with the neighborhood context” and voiced concerns about how construction would impact nearby businesses.

“The scale of this building is entirely inappropriate for this site, this location,” Moss said.

But feedback garnered through community meetings has generally been positive, said Sarah Trbovic, executive director of the Lawrenceville Corp., which has helped facilitate public engagement on the project.

“The development has been received quite positively, mainly because it increases the density of Lawrenceville for an area that needs more residents and more businesses,” she said. She added that Albion was “thoroughly responsive throughout the process.”

Elizabeth Amato, a Lawrenceville resident and representative of Pro Housing Pittsburgh, said adding more housing stock helps “keep Lawrenceville affordable” and provides more housing units to meet the growing demand.

Amato said she also was glad to see a development that’s “adding without detracting anything,” as no one will be displaced and a vacant site will be brought into productive reuse.

The planning commission approved the proposal 6-0 on Tuesday. Commission members Lashawn Burton-Faulk and Sabina Deitrick were not present for the vote.