Project Background:
East Liberty’s revival and growth has been remarkable, and is a key driver in the overall success of the City of Pittsburgh. As the pace of development picks up in East Liberty, the City of Pittsburgh is now prepared to implement a key aspect of the neighborhood’s plan: the elimination of Penn Circle as a street name. Several neighborhood plans call for Penn Circle to be returned to two-way operation—half of that has been completed, and the other half will be underway in the near future. These plans also call for the restoration of some original street names—this will help to erase a visible reminder of failed urban renewal and bring much needed closure to that era. The change is also necessary to ensure proper public safety response (due to confusing or improperly assigned addresses) and to improve customer/visitor navigation.
Summary of Changes:
There were four options presented for discussion both online and at public meeting (which took place on May 22, 2013 and July 18, 2013). Using the input we received, the Addressing Committee will be implementing the plan as shown below. This plan was approved by the City of Pittsburgh Addressing Committee on July 19, 2013, and a resolution approving the name changes was passed by City Council on December 10, 2013.
• Penn Circle S → Centre Ave
• Penn Circle W → N/S Euclid Ave
• Penn Circle N → Station St
• Penn Circle E → Centre Ave
• Rural St remains as-is
• Station St remains as-is
• Collins St (between Station St and East Liberty Blvd) → Centre Ave
• Collins St (north of East Liberty Blvd) remains as-is
• Negley Run Blvd remains as-is (see below for details)
Reasons for implementing this plan:
- It's a close reflection the neighborhood’s development plan and community vision document
- It creates a continuous Centre Ave, which helps visitor navigation in a growing neighborhood
- It has the most street name consolidation (prior to renaming, a trip from Washington Blvd to Shadyside/Bloomfield would take you along one route with five street names--this plan consolidates that into two)
- Consolidating street names along a continuous route helps navigation for those unfamiliar with the area
- It corrects several nonconforming addresses along Collins St (several out of sequence or ½ numbered addresses)
- Penn Circle West addresses were assigned in the wrong order (they count up from Centre Ave rather than from Penn Ave as with all other parallel streets). This plan corrects this and restores the pre-Urban Renewal address ranges
- Why doesn't Centre Ave continue all the way to Washington Blvd? Why does it end at East Liberty Blvd?
- Extending Centre Ave to Washington Blvd is not feasible at this time because it would create a duplicate intersection in the City based on the root names of the streets
- There is already an intersection of Centre Ave and Washington (Place) in the Lower Hill District (by the Consol Energy Center)--to create another intersection with the same root names would be a public safety hazard for 911 responders
- Negley Run Blvd and Collins St currently overlap for one block (north of East Liberty Blvd), and renaming this block could create inconsistencies in the house numbers there, as Centre Ave has a different address range
- This solution still creates a mostly continuous Centre Ave that will assist in visitor navigation