In an early move to shape the city\u2019s future development, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor has nominated a slate of candidates for the city\u2019s Planning Commission \u2014 and one of his picks is generating both enthusiasm and controversy.<\/p>\n
David Vatz, founder of housing policy advocacy group Pro-Housing Pittsburgh<\/a>, is among O\u2019Connor\u2019s six picks for the city\u2019s nine-member commission. The panel guides land use in the city, and weighs in on zoning decisions, historic nominations, and overall development plans.<\/p>\n Vatz is a familiar name for those engaged in local housing policy discussions: He\u2019s a frequent presence at Council debates and Planning Commission meetings \u2014 and he\u2019s been a sharp critic of former Mayor Ed Gainey\u2019s housing agenda and the commission itself.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aHe’s repeatedly displayed a lack of respect for the community the Planning Commission works with to ensure they have a voice,\u201d said Daniel Shaffer, a housing consultant who has worked on affordable housing projects, during the public-comment portion of council\u2019s Tuesday meeting, where the nominations were introduced.<\/p>\n Pro-Housing Pittsburgh promotes more housing of all kinds across Pittsburgh, a platform that includes promoting density and loosening regulations \u2014 including rules that oblige developers to provide housing at price levels that are affordable to lower-income households.<\/p>\n The organization says such rules interfere with efforts to expand the supply of housing, which Vatz and others say is the best way to bring housing prices down. Pro-Housing Pittsburgh<\/a> and Vatz himself<\/a> have vocal social media presences, and Vatz has questioned some of the city\u2019s public-input process, including the role it provides for neighborhood groups, called Registered Community Organizations, to weigh in on development.<\/p>\n In one social media conversation in 2024, Vatz described<\/a> the program as a \u201cmonumental waste of time and resources perpetrated by our policy makers upon our citizens.\u201d He said public engagement tends to \u201cempower\u201d those who want to block progress<\/a>, and that \u201cprofessional planners, not neighborhood busybodies\u201d<\/a> should make decisions.<\/p>\n Shaffer said such positions raise flags. \u201c\u200aWhen you have someone who’s on social media on multiple platforms out there talking about how community input is a burden, I think that’s a very huge concern,\u201d he told WESA.<\/p>\n In an interview Tuesday, Vatz said he was not against having \u201cany community process,\u201d but maintained that the city\u2019s approach should be reexamined.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aA lot of times, a community meeting is attended by the people who are available to attend the community meeting at that moment,\u201d Vatz said. \u201cThey are not always representative of the broader community,\u201d whose members may not be able to show up for a weekday mid-morning hearing.<\/p>\n Some on council embraced Vatz\u2019s nomination. Councilor Bob Charland, who said he\u2019s known Vatz since childhood, praised his \u201cdeep knowledge both in Pittsburgh and internationally with what works in housing policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aHe can be serious about his commitments, serious about what he believes in and his convictions,\u201d Charland said. \u201cBut he is someone that wants to see more housing built in Pittsburgh, and that’s his sole goal here.\u201d<\/p>\n Councilor Barb Warwick was more wary, describing Vatz as a \u201cdivisive figure.\u201d In the past, she and Vatz have been on opposing sides of debates about citywide inclusionary zoning, a policy that requires new developments to include affordable housing. But Warwick said such policy disagreements were less worrisome than Vatz\u2019s \u201c\u200adisdain for public comment and community input.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWhether you agree with what the public thinks about a given development in their community, they should have the right to come out and speak their mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For its part, Pro-Housing has sometimes accused the Planning Commission itself of shutting out voices.<\/p>\n In one social-media post, during a debate about inclusionary zoning<\/a>, it labeled the commission as \u201ccompletely corrupt\u201d when taking public testimony about the affordability rules. That post came as a result of the commission\u2019s move, during the course of an 11-hour meeting<\/a>, to limit the time available to Charland to discuss a rival proposal to Gainey\u2019s inclusionary-zoning approach.<\/p>\n On Tuesday Vatz told WESA he stood by the characterization of the commission\u2019s move as \u201ccorrupt. They stopped a sitting member of Council from making his case about his bill.\u201d He said the incident showed the need for reform, and said he and O\u2019Connor shared a vision.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor, Vatz said, is \u201cputting up a slate of people for the Planning Commission that will build on some of his campaign promises to build more housing in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Planning Commission members who served during the Gainey administration will remain. Sitting members Rachel O\u2019Neill and Peter Quintanilla are being retained, and O\u2019Connor moved to reappoint LaShawn Burton-Faulk to her seat, even though her term had expired.<\/p>\n The five other new nominated members come from a variety of backgrounds.<\/p>\n Darrin Kelly, former president of the Allegheny\/Fayette Central Labor Council, was appointed to replace vice president of Pittsburgh Building Trades Steve Mazza. Elmhurst Corporation developer Justin Hunt was nominated to replace urban planner Phillip Wu. Gerardo Interiano, a government affairs official at Aurora, a self-driving vehicle company, is replacing Monica Ruiz, executive director of Latino advocacy center Casa San Jose. Vatz himself is replacing sitting councilor Jean Holland Dick, whose term O\u2019Connor terminated \u201ceffective immediately,\u201d according to a communication to Council Tuesday.<\/a><\/p>\n Also among the nominations are Diamonte Walker, a former top official in the city\u2019s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Bob Reppe, who was once a planning official for Mayor Tom Murphy and more recently served as master planner for Carnegie Mellon University.<\/p>\n Todd Reidbord, president of Pittsburgh development company Walnut Capital, said he was encouraged by Vatz\u2019s nomination, and the rest of O\u2019Connor\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n When it comes to development, Reidbord said, \u201cWe need to get to \u2018yes.\u2019 We need more people here. We need more commerce here, we need more activity, we need more jobs and we need more housing. \u200aAnd we need to find ways to do that in a fair and equitable way, but we need to get to \u2018yes.\u2019 \u200aCorey’s all over that, and I think the people he’s appointed will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n The discussion over O\u2019Connor\u2019s picks will continue in the days ahead: Council on Tuesday moved to interview the new appointees along with Burton-Faulk before holding a vote on whether to confirm them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an early move to shape the city\u2019s future development, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor has nominated a slate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-116519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}