Residential, retail opportunities coming to RIDC Park in O'Hara

New residential and commercial development options are now available at the RIDC Park in O’Hara.

Township officials unanimously voted Tuesday to amend their zoning ordinance to create a mixed-use overlay district in the suburban manufacturing district.

Barbershops, nail salons, other personal service shops, restaurants, gas stations, low-rise and garden apartments, townhouses, private clubs, health and fitness clubs, museums and more can be developed in a portion of the estimated 700-acre site.

These would all be considered conditional uses, meaning development plans would have to be approved by council.

The new overlay district has a mix of occupied and vacant businesses, with the largest empty space being the former Emerson building. The global conglomerate moved its regional operations to Cranberry a few years ago.

Township manager Julie Jakubec said the amendment was necessary to keep up with the times.

“The amendment is needed to keep the park competitive with the changing manufacturing/office space market,” Jakubec said before the meeting. “The overlay will allow mixed use into the park, including some residential development in the overlay district. Since covid, the demand for office space has slowed. This will allow the park to flourish and continue to move forward.”

Council hosted a public hearing shortly before its voting session.

Resident Bill Lombardi was the only audience member who spoke at the hearing. He voiced concerns about potential traffic issues.

Borough officials said no new roads are planned for the RIDC site.

Council Vice President Mike Hammill said the township has been working on the changes with the help of RIDC officials for about a year.

“You always want to try to grow your community,” Hammill said. “I think it’s beneficial for everyone. We’ve always been looking to see how we can revitalize RIDC to help those businesses up there (and) to expand and bring new businesses in.”

Pashek+MTR was brought in as a consultant during the zoning amendment/overlay creation process.

Hammill said there was a lot of teamwork for the betterment of the township.

“We’ve been looking at different ideas and seeing what the business community up there feels,” he said. “It seems like everybody’s pretty much on board. We go through the public hearings and see how the community reacts and how they feel. Anybody that wanted to speak up had a chance to speak up.”

Mike Goldstrom, senior vice president of real state for RIDC, was at Tuesday’s meeting.

He commended council for creating new opportunities for the area.

“I think it’s a very positive move for RIDC Park,” Goldstrom said. “The park was developed many years ago with the purpose of building industrial buildings but not a mixed-use park. Now, it has the opportunity to become a mixed-use park that can offer live, work and play amenities to the park.”

The consulting firm helped craft the township and Fox Chapel’s joint comprehensive plan, which was released last year.

There are more than 130 businesses in the industrial park spanning more than 3.75 million square feet of office, industrial, manufacturing and warehouse space, according to the RIDC website. It is the largest industrial park in the Northeastern Pittsburgh submarket.

The amendment is available for review at the township office and was posted to the township’s website.