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September 2025 community meeting: Federally-funded EV charging stations could come to Glen Caladh St. next year | The Homepage
- jmartinez5135
- Oct 1
- 5 min read
By Juliet Martinez
The Sept. 9 Greater Hazelwood community meeting brought together neighbors and friends of Hazelwood to discuss an electric vehicle charging project for the City of Pittsburgh. They also heard about upcoming events at Hazelwood Green and offered feedback on both topics.
Electric vehicle chargers
This project aims to place EV charging stations around the city so that owners and operators of electric vehicles can charge them safely, efficiently and affordably. In Hazelwood, the charging units may be installed in the neighborhood’s business district along Glen Caladh Street across from Hazelwood Towers.
Allie Azzarello, the City of Pittsburgh sustainability and resilience planner, presented with Mickey Bethune, a policy analyst with the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.
Ms. Azzarello and Mr. Bethune explained that the EV charging project lines up with the city’s 2021 EV charging strategic plan, the 2021 EV Readiness municipal ordinance, the city’s climate action plan and the clean air goals expressed in the Greater Hazelwood Neighborhood Plan.
The project will be funded by the federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant. The City of Pittsburgh applied for the grant a couple of years ago, but received funds in January, just before the Trump administration took office in January and stopped all clean energy funding.
EV owners around the city are finding creative ways to charge their cars, but these aren’t necessarily safe. For example, some EV owners hang an extension cable out the window of their home or run it across a sidewalk. They may have plugged one cable into another or into an outlet shared with other electrical devices. Some have informally posted “Electric vehicle only” signs in front of their homes, limiting on-street parking. Safe, affordable public charging stations located around the city would address these problems.
The project will place 100 accessible level 2 charging stations near curb-cut sidewalks around the city. Level 2 charging provides 10 to 30 miles of traveling range per charging hour.
The city plans to build the first handful of units in parks and city-owned parking facilities in late fall or early winter of this year for Phase 1. The remainder, including the stations planned for Hazelwood, are scheduled to be built next year.
The city is still developing the pricing structure for the charging units. The presenters said the prices may change at different times of the day or night when electricity is cheaper. The price could also go up dramatically after two hours of charging so that people don’t stay parked at the charging unit all day, with a possible phone app that alerts the person that it is time to move their car.
No city dollars are being used on this project in the first five years. The federal grant covers building the charging stations and maintaining them for five years. The stations will be available 24 hours a day every day. Feedback the city receives during the first five years will shape the program in the longer term.
Hazelwood has other needs this will not address, the presenters acknowledged, but said the city is taking the opportunity to promote green technology in line with its climate and public health goals.
But the presenters said the project can benefit Hazelwood by encouraging people to buy electric vehicles, which cuts down on tailpipe emissions. As an environmental justice area, Hazelwood has a higher-than-average rate of asthma and other pollution-related illnesses.
The charging stations will not be solar powered because individual solar panels would not generate enough electricity to charge the vehicle batteries efficiently.
The presenters encouraged residents on and near Glen Caladh Street between Second Avenue and Gertrude Street to take advantage of the public input period. Another round of public meetings will happen next year.
The meeting was the first development activities meeting in Hazelwood for the citywide electric vehicle charging program. Hazelwood Initiative Director of Outreach and Sustainability Lauren Coursey explained that development activities meetings are opportunities for residents, business owners and anyone else who could be affected to learn about a proposal and give their feedback.
To learn more and leave public comments online, please visit engage.pittsburghpa.gov/ev-community-charging-infrastructure.
Hazelwood Local events
Nikki Martin and Cassie McDonald from Hazelwood Local informed participants about upcoming events and asked for suggestions and feedback.
Electric Playground: Oct. 4, 2-6 p.m.
This free, all-ages event in partnership with the August Wilson Center will focus on electricity and all the technology that it powers.
Fall Mini-Fest: Oct. 25
This free, all-ages annual event takes place in the lot across from Morningstar Baptist Church at 5524 Second Ave., on the corner with Renova Street.
Ms. Martin encouraged small business owners to contact her about selling at Hazelwood Local events to gain experience with in-person fair and festival sales.
She also asked for ideas for upcoming events. Participants suggested safety-related events like CPR training and fire safety, a double-dutch contest, a highland fling or strongman competition, a touch-a-truck event, and history-themed events. The crowd heartily approved of repeating the extremely popular dunk tank that accompanied the showing of “The Sandlot” last year.
Other feedback included not scheduling events that conflict with church services, publicizing events in Hazelwood first, and allowing Hazelwood organizations to make announcements at events. One well-received suggestion involved placing informative history signage around Hazelwood Green.
Email Nikki@streetplans.org with suggestions, feedback and questions.
Hazelwood Initiative Inc.
Hazelwood Initiative Executive Director Sonya Tilghman announced that the affordable housing development planned for the uphill side of the 4800 block of Second Avenue has stalled, possibly indefinitely. The nonprofit developer The Community Builders has decided not to move forward with it. Ms. Tilghman said she is trying to understand the project’s challenges and see if the community development corporation can address them and resubmit an application to resurrect it. It was awarded low-income housing tax credits, but The Community Builders declined them.
Safe Halloween
Jim McLaughlin invited everyone to support and attend the 26th annual Safe Halloween on Friday, Oct. 31. Donations toward the event can be made out to Hazelwood Initiative with “Safe Halloween” written on the memo line. Please send or deliver them to 4901 Second Ave., 2nd Floor. See the ad below.
Candy donations can be dropped off at the office as well, but they must be sealed. Volunteers willing to help pack the candy bags are welcome and should watch their email and Hazelwood Initiative’s Facebook page for details.
Garden workdays
Garden workdays with Community Garden Manager Valerie Testa are on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hazelwood Community Garden on Monongahela Avenue between Minden and Berwick streets. Email gardens@hazelwoodinitiative.org for information.
Green workforce job fair Dec. 3
Hazelwood resident Tiffany Taulton is the new green workforce development strategist for Dream.org. Her goal is to get people affected by environmental justice issues jobs in the green economy as solar installers, EV charging station installers, foresters, arborists, pruners and more. The demand for these jobs is rising, she said.
A green industry job fair will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District. Ms. Taulton encouraged anyone interested, or who knows others who might be interested, to email her at tiffany.taulton@dream.org so she can send them the details. Flyers will also be posted as the date approaches.
Head Start pre-K
COTRAIC Head Start is enrolling students for pre-K. To learn more, visit cotraic.org/hs-enroll-now.
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