Weigh in on transit
Weigh in on transit, river access, trails and more at the Green Boulevard public meeting Thursday.
A public meeting will be held in the Strip District tomorrow allowing residents to weigh in on the Allegheny Riverfront Green Boulevard Plan.
The Green Boulevard is a planning project looking at a six mile stretch of rail right-of-way between Downtown, Lawrenceville, and beyond.
As the first of several public meetings, attendees will have a chance to learn about the project’s progress, as well as how to provide feedback on the corridor’s design and plans. A series of interactive activities will generate information on how residents currently use the corridor, and how they’d like to use it in the future.
The goal is to transform the existing rail corridor into a multi-modal green boulevard with river and park access, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and passenger rail service, in addition to freight traffic.
Lena Andrews, URA planning and development specialist, says planning for this corridor is important because Lawrenceville and the Strip District are growing, but the infrastructure is lacking and in disrepair.
“In order for things to keep moving there needs to be new infrastructure in that area,” Andrews says.
The Green Boulevard is a continuation of the Mayor Ravenstahl’s Allegheny Riverfront Vision Plan, which was released earlier this year. Planning for the boulevard is supported by a $1.5 million grant funded by HUD and DOT, and will continue through March 2013.
Allegheny Valley Railroad, a company who controls much of the rail right-of-way, recently received a $350 million commitment to develop a passenger rail service, which would include the Green Boulevard corridor. Andrews says both plans are integrally related, “but we just need to make sure [the passenger rail] is part of a larger citywide vision.”
Andrews says earlier research showed a huge lack of open space and infrastructure needs in the corridor, and that the Green Boulevard could solve those problems by providing a new form of mobility, new connections to downtown and Oakland, and address storm water runoff.
“All of the things that the Riverfront Vision plan pointed out were really lacking in the Strip District and Lawrenceville, this right-of-way has an opportunity to help to solve,” Andrews says.
November 17, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Society for Contemporary Craft, 2100 Smallman St. in the Strip District. For additional information, contact Lena Andrews, 412.255.6439.