Inside the former Carnegie Steel Pump House in Homestead, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pennsylvania State Sen. Nick Pisciottano on Thursday announced the start of an economic development plan for the Mon Valley.
Over the past five years the county has invested more than $115 million in the Mon Valley, according to Innamorato.
“There’s been some tremendous work that’s happening,” Innamorato said. “But if you talk to the person on the street, they probably don’t really feel the difference. They don’t feel like the Mon Valley has transformed in a meaningful way and resources are already gonna be limited. So we wanna make sure that we’re bringing all of our partners together, public and private, nonprofit, labor unions, philanthropy, to say, ‘let’s all come to the table. Let’s figure out a shared vision and a common set of goals, and let’s align the monies to achieve those goals.”
The plan — called Mon Valley Forward — aims to create a focused, data-driven roadmap for investment in the cluster of municipalities founded to support the steel industry. The effort seeks to guide how to attract new businesses and support those already rooted in the region, along with creating and retaining jobs with family-supporting wages for local workers.
Mon Valley Forward is still in its early stages of planning. A team of consultants has begun collecting market and demographic data. Interviews with municipal and community leaders are slated to take place over the next few months. And they will host meetings in the community for local residents to weigh in.
The team is looking to figure out “near term priorities” by next March in order to line up with government funding cycles, according to Lauren Connelly, director of Allegheny County Economic Development. The economic development plan for the Mon Valley will also be a part of the countywide comprehensive plan, which is scheduled to wrap up by the end of next year.
Having a plan would help local elected officials make a case for significant funding, according to Pisciottano. “It’s hard to drive funding from Harrisburg in huge multimillion dollar chunks without an overarching strategy and plan.”
After the collapse of steel, the local populations in Mon Valley communities plummeted and with it local property tax revenue. The fiscal distress in Braddock, North Braddock, Homestead, Clairton, McKeesport, East Pittsburgh, and Duquesne triggered a process called Act 47, in which the state of Pennsylvania steps in to help municipalities get their finances under control. All of these Mon Valley municipalities have since recovered from financial distress under Act 47.
Major investments from Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel and the expansion of Eos Energy Enterprises, which makes energy storage systems, and has a manufacturing facility in Turtle Creek, have provided a recent economic boon.
The county last attempted a comprehensive plan for the Mon Valley in 2005. What makes this one different, Connelly said, is that the new plan will be “actionable.” “This is accountability. We had our leaders here standing today saying, ‘we are going to identify priorities and we are going to align our resources in a real way behind those priorities. There is a commitment here today.”