Smart Growth Partnership marks 20 years of community planning efforts in Westmoreland

Entrances to the Coal and Coke Trail in southern Westmoreland County have new solar-powered lighting, Smithton has gained a kayak and canoe access point along the Youghiogheny River, and New Kensington has seen 36 businesses open in the past 21 months.

All are outgrowths of the Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County, an organization formed 20 years ago to work in partnership with communities and groups to promote effective comprehensive planning.

The nonprofit invited its community partners to the J. Roy Houston Conservation Center and Pavilion in Hempfield on Wednesday evening to celebrate their achievements while looking to the future.

Executive Director John Turack noted the organization has shifted from “roles as visionaries, education specialists and innovative planning specialists during our first 10 years to our more recent engagements as community developers, project catalyzers, community capacity builders and project implementation specialists.

“What hasn’t changed is the essential role of our community-level project champions and community leaders.”

The organization presented awards to the county commissioners, the county planning department and representatives from New Kensington, Scottdale and Smithton. The recipients were recognized for their “smart growth” initiatives — marked by an emphasis on walkable communities, a variety of transportation choices and collaboration with stakeholders in making development decisions.

The county officials in 2018 completed two years of work on “Reimagining Our Westmoreland,” the county’s first comprehensive plan since 2005.

Smithton and Scottdale collaborated on a multi-modal Active Transportation Plan, which has provided the basis for several community projects.

“It’s already benefited us, from the standpoint of getting us a front-row seat to get more grants,” Scottdale Councilman Andy Pinsky said.

The Scottdale Community Civic & Industrial Association matched funding from the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County to install the signage and motion-activated lighting at Coal and Coke Trail parking lots and entrances near the Scottdale Borough Building and at Kendi Park.

The investment of nearly $50,000 also provided lighting for canoe ramps along the trail.

Development of the cross-community transportation plan was “very methodical, very well done,” Smithton Council member Karen Primm said. “Now we have a document that we can refer to. We’ve come a long way.”

Putting some of the plan’s proposals in place, Smithton has completed projects valued at about $60,000, Primm said. That includes the Float Smithton kayak launches and “wayfinding” signs through the town. She said grant applications are pending for a playground and walking track and a kiosk that would be placed along the Great Allegheny Passage trail.

New Kensington has collaborated with the Penn State New Kensington branch campus on development projects, Mayor Tom Guzzo noted. Those include The Corner Launchbox, an entrepreneurial and work share center, established in 2017.

Next will be the Digital Foundry at New Kensington.

“We’re going to be preparing people for the tech jobs of the future right here,” Guzzo said.

The Smart Growth Partnership presented “nuts and bolts” trophies to honor four people who helped found the organization: Linda McKenna Boxx, of the Katherine Mabis Mc­Kenna Foundation; former state Sen. Allen Kukovich; Frank Cassell, president and professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg; and late businessman and philanthropist Jack Robertshaw Jr.

Robertshaw, the McKenna Foundation, Allegheny Power and the Mary Jennings Hillman Foundation together committed nearly $300,000 to start the Smart Growth Partnership.

Originally housed on the Pitt-Greensburg campus, it since has become a partnered program of the Penn State Extension and is located at the Extension’s offices on Donohoe Road in Hempfield.