.png)
Oct. 2025 community meeting: Greenway expansion project and Adopt-A-Lot programs need your input | The Homepage
- jmartinez5135
- 7 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Also: Greenfield Baseball proposes nonprofit indoor training facility on site of Blair Street Parklet
By Juliet Martinez, managing editor
The Oct. 14 Greater Hazelwood hybrid community meeting saw lively discussions about land use throughout the neighborhood and city. A lifelong resident proposed building a year-round baseball facility below the tracks, and staff from the Department of City Planning invited feedback about the Adopt-A-Lot program and expanding the greenway system.
Greenways expansion
Mackenzie Pleskovic, a senior planner for vacant property and open space in the Department of City Planning, said the city is working to assess which city-owned vacant lots should become part of the greenway system and which are suitable for development. A greenway is land that is permanently designated as a public, open green space.
The city has about 30,000 vacant lots, Ms. Pleskovic said. It owns roughly a third of those, so about 10,000. For decades, many of these have been categorized as needing more study.
Last year, City Planning acted on advice from the city’s legal department and the Department of Public Works to determine what would happen to these vacant lots. The city engaged the Trust for Public Land’s Parks Equity Accelerator to help map the vacant lots and see which ones are most landslide prone. They found city-owned vacant lots with a high risk of landslides in 41 neighborhoods.
Public Works will not invest in managing the lots until some designation is made for them. Before that can happen, City Planning needs input from the people in the neighborhoods where these landslide-prone lots are located.
“The hope is to reactivate these spaces to work with nonprofits, to make these spaces kind of available for community stewardship,” Ms. Pleskovic said.
To offer your input on the vacant, city-owned lots in your neighborhood, visit engage.pittsburghpa.gov/greenways-expansion-planning.
Adopt-A-Lot
One of the established programs for vacant, city-owned lots is Adopt-A-Lot. Vacant Lands Stewardship Fellow Yasmine Baiod described a current effort to update this program based on public feedback.
The Adopt-A-Lot program allows people to adopt unused lots for rain gardens, or to raise food or flowers.
About half of Hazelwood’s 16,000 vacant lots are city-owned, Ms. Baiod said. These lots could be sold but are not currently being sold. The program gives people the opportunity to use them and beautify their community in the meantime.
In the 10 years since the program launched, Pittsburghers have used it to create community, increase food access and enhance native ecosystems, according to Ms. Baiod. About 130 lots around the city are currently in use under this program.
The current effort involves expanding what is allowed on the lots, updating the lease terms to better serve participants, allow temporary uses other than growing, and update the resource guide available to participants.
Some of the possible future uses could include art installations, popup event spaces or food trucks. Current lot adopters have said they want to expand the allowed elements to include signage, electricity, solar panels and outdoor cooking, among other ideas.
The process for adopting a lot involves first locating it on lotstolove.org to find out if the city owns it. An intake form is available at lotstolove.org/your-lot/get-permission/access. The city determines if the lot is slated for some long-term use and provides free soil testing. The final allowed use depends on the soil test results. Finally, the adopter must sign a lease agreement. If a lot is intended for personal or family use, there is no charge and no insurance requirement. Community projects do require insurance. Other limits apply, depending on the intended use of the land.
To learn more and offer your insights on the program’s future, visit engage.pittsburghpa.gov/adopt-a-lot.
Indoor baseball facility
Hazelwood resident Mike Terlecki is the president of the Greenfield Baseball Association board. He presented an idea for a year-round baseball training facility in Hazelwood on the site of the Blair Street Parklet.
The Greenfield Baseball Association operates 11 months out of the year, which means they pay for indoor training spaces in fall, winter and spring. Pittsburgh does not have any indoor baseball training facilities, so teams must travel to the suburbs and pay significant fees to use indoor facilities. Mr. Terlecki proposed building one in Hazelwood for their team and other city teams to use.
“We’re looking for an opportunity to do something positive for these kids,” he said. “Ultimately it’s for the whole neighborhood and the whole city.”
Mr. Terlecki proposed partnering with the Pirates RBI, a charity focused on supporting inner-city baseball, to build a nonprofit indoor, year-round baseball training facility. It would have a practice field, pitching and hitting practice areas, classrooms, a weight training room and a cafeteria. The facility would also be available to CitiParks programs and local teams.
District 5 Councilor Barb Warwick said the city no longer maintains the “decommissioned” park. Mr. Terlecki, who lives near it, said dirt bikers ride there until late at night, and that it has become a nuisance.
The facility would operate from morning to early evening, he said. This would mean that traffic from the facility would have died down by the time that evening games were being played at the Steelers multi-sport field planned three blocks away at Hazelwood Green.
Steelers multi-sports field
Steelers Charities and Hazelwood Green master developer Tishman-Speyer gave an update on the facility that is scheduled to break ground early this month.
Austin Gelbard from Tishman Speyer said the permits are in hand, and the construction is expected to last until next summer. The goal is to be open for the fall season next year.
The facility will have a multi-sport playing field, 3,000 seats, goalposts, netting, lighting, a speaker’s box and accessible parking spaces. The garage that is there now will be repurposed into bathrooms, locker rooms and storage. Day-to-day parking will be near the garage, with event parking on a larger gravel lot.
Blayre Holmes Davis from Steelers Charities announced that Sports Facilities Companies has signed on as the operator. She described the company as an expert in this kind of operation.
“Their mission is to improve the health and mental well-being of organizations and communities that they serve, so they are very committed to working with all of you,” she said. Representatives from the company would be at a public meeting on Oct. 20 at Propel Hazelwood School; she urged everyone to attend.
The field will be striped for soccer, lacrosse, and flag and tackle football. The facility will have weekly open community access hours, free field time for Hazelwood nonprofits, and discounted rates for nonprofits from outside Hazelwood.
The company will post job openings for a general manager and director of operations. They will also look for a local contractor to provide concessions.
The Hazelwood Cobras will not be able to sell concessions, which is a revenue stream for them, but they will be able to charge admission for games and sell their team swag. The presenters assured everyone that the costs of entry and concessions would be affordable, though the final pricing structure has yet to be determined.
Gladstone Residences
Hazelwood Initiative Inc. Executive Director Sonya Tilghman announced that 12 units are still available for people on the waitlist. The housing authority is working through it; those waiting to be notified could still potentially get one of the units.
Hazelwood Green
Ms. Tilghman said the three affordable housing developments planned for Hazelwood Green have received Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Trek Development received funding for phases 1 and 3, which are multi-story buildings. Phase 1 will face Lytle Street while Phase 3 will face Blair Street. These two will be connected by a row of apartment buildings built by Modular Homes on Eliza Street.
Green industry jobs
Hazelwood resident Tiffany Taulton announced a Dec. 3 job fair she is organizing as the green workforce development strategist at Dream.org. Anyone interested in green industry jobs should scan the green QR code to learn more and register.
Ms. Taulton also announced a $3,500 scholarship to help green industry workers pay for training or necessities like childcare or transportation during training. Scan the black and white QR code for information and to apply.
