Proposal outlines future, identifies key issues in Harrison, Brackenridge, Tarentum

Economic development, property deterioration, recreation and branding are the four key issues identified in a new comprehensive plan aimed at guiding the future of Harrison, Brackenridge and Tarentum.

“Our goal was to formulate an implementable plan — not a 100-page plan that would sit on a shelf,” said Robin Bergstrom, a former Harrison commissioner and member of the steering committee that developed the plan. “The four key focus areas identified are the ones that are essential to the growth and development of our towns and will help us retain and attract new residents.

“This plan, if implemented, will define our future.”

The 72-page plan, in development for more than a year, is under review by the three municipalities and those bordering them, including some in Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, Highlands School District and Allegheny County, said Elaine Kramer, a planner and landscape designer with the Pittsburgh-based planning firm Pashek+MTR.

The review runs until the end of October.

Leaders will react to feedback from the reviewers and, provided there are no comments requiring major changes, they will hold public hearings on the plan and then vote on adopting it.

In addition to meetings of a steering committee representing each town, the plan’s development included a questionnaire, public meetings and interviews.

“We’re really pleased and excited that this plan seems to have really captured the interest of people in the community because it appears to be very implementable from their perspective,” Kramer said.

Tarentum Councilwoman Lou Ann Homa, a steering committee member, said her council is tentatively set to hold a hearing and vote Dec. 1.

The plan originally was anticipated to be finished by the end of June but was delayed because of the covid-19 pandemic, Homa said.

“I’m very pleased with it,” she said. “Everything that’s in there is within reach.”

Brackenridge Councilman Dino Lopreiato said representatives of the three communities worked well together.

“It put into perspective that all the problems did not happen overnight. They were over decades of neglect,” he said. “I do feel optimistic we’ll be able to make a change and make things even better.”

The four key issues identified in the plan are:

• Social entrepreneurship, community/economic development.

The plan calls for maximizing the Allegheny Riverfront as a community asset.

The other high-priority strategy, forming a community development corporation to represent all three municipalities, already has been achieved, with the nonprofit Faith Community Partners volunteering to assume this role.

“To have Faith Community Partners step up for this very important role makes me feel very positive this is going to get implemented,” Kramer said.

Faith Community Partners Executive Director David Rankin said emphasis will be placed on remediating blight, restoring and repurposing vacant and underused commercial and residential buildings and building a coalition of community organizations, governmental agencies, businesses and faith-based organizations.

Gerald Driggs, managing partner of Ground Floor Solutions, will act as director of the CDC division within Faith Community Partners. Its offices will be in the Murphy Building in Tarentum.

“Our success will depend almost entirely on building trust with all segments of the community to accomplish goals that improve the quality of life in this area for everyone,” Driggs said.

• Blight and property deterioration.

The plan calls for efforts to be overseen and driven by a multimunicipal “blight team.” Helping property owners trying to make improvements is cited as another strategy.

Homa noted Tarentum and Harrison have already been acting on this issue by tearing down dilapidated buildings. Lopreiato said blight is one of the first things he’d like to see the towns address.

Bergstrom said they have begun using an application to map blighted areas.

“I’m excited because we’ve already started doing activities,” she said. “Once we get support from the boards, we can really get some progress.”

Lopreiato said he’d like to see buildings identified when they can still be saved. “It’s going to take the community to do this,” he said.

• Trails, parks and recreation.

The plan calls for convening a trails, parks and recreation group to work on joint programs and events and planning of public facilities and trails.

Bergstrom said the three communities have been working on joint activities and created a map that shows their recreation assets such as parks, trails and other facilities.

• Community identity and branding.

The idea is to develop a community identity and a branding campaign to speak to local people and the greater Pittsburgh area with one voice about the three towns’ characteristics and assets, such as their small-town feel, affordable housing and amenities such as parks, trails, recreation, walkability and river views.

“We were always the steel town,” Homa said. “We’re not anymore. We need to try to rebrand some of that.”

In addition to the four key issues, the plan also addresses transportation access, the relationship between the municipalities and the Highlands School District, crime and infrastructure.

To skeptics, Bergstrom challenged them to get involved.

“There are a lot of people in our towns that have talents,” she said. “They can contribute to the change and make a difference. Help us.”