About
The Neighborhood
The City of Pittsburgh is home to 90 neighborhoods, including Hazelwood and Glen Hazel, which together create the Greater Hazelwood neighborhood. Hazelwood Green’s 178-acres account for 14% of the Greater Hazelwood 1,305-acre neighborhood.
As a former steel mill site, Hazelwood Green was once the literal and metaphorical powerhouse of the Greater Hazelwood neighborhood. The decline and eventual closing of the mill was a significant economic blow to the neighborhood. However, given the mill’s decades of pollution and impact on public health, its closure also meant the chance to recover the ecological and environmental health of the neighborhood and region. The development plans for Hazelwood Green build on the momentum of the city and region by restoring an economic driver to the neighborhood in a thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable way.
One of the city’s more diversely balanced communities, Greater Hazelwood is a reflection of Pittsburgh’s demographics, socioeconomic forces, and revitalization. Efforts over the past decade have focused on reviving the once bustling Second Avenue main street, restoring historically significant buildings, increasing home ownership, and attracting local services (e.g. bakery, coffee shop, brewery, brew pub, restaurants) as well as supporting and growing existing businesses.
Video by Carnegie Mellon University for the November 2017 groundbreaking. For more, click here.
The Neighborhood Plan
In November 2019, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the Greater Hazelwood Neighborhood Plan (GHNP) - Greater Hazelwood: Our Hands. Our Plan - the community’s first official neighborhood plan. The GHNP was developed through a 3-year planning process that was managed by the Department of City Planning and steered by a neighborhood-based committee that includes representatives from local mission-based organizations. Through extensive public engagement and feedback, the Steering Committee and City Planning established a plan that advances an equitable and inclusive vision for the neighborhood’s future. Greater Hazelwood recognizes that development is but one component of greater community improvement and makes clear its Vision for a diverse, thriving neighborhood that welcomes new neighbors and investments while lifting up its existing residents and stakeholders.
“Greater Hazelwood is a diverse and welcoming community for people of all incomes and backgrounds. Our future is driven by the leadership of community residents, resulting in a community with thriving families and households; affordable, high-quality residential options; family-sustaining career opportunities; successful business and business owners; and a fully-integrated Hazelwood Green.
Our community fosters opportunities to build generational wealth and community health to ensure current and future generations benefit from the neighborhood’s growth and prosperity. We build strong partnerships with stakeholders throughout the region, while protecting and celebrating the unique landscape, history, culture and spirit of Greater Hazelwood.”
Listen to Episode 09: Hazelwood, A Pittsburgh Neighborhood on the Cusp of Change.
It’s a neighborhood in Southeast Pittsburgh that’s only four miles from downtown but hard to get to by public transportation. Besides feeling physically isolated from the rest of the city, residents in Hazelwood have watched other neighborhoods redevelop and cash in on Pittsburgh’s renaissance. But a big change is finally underway in Hazelwood, where a former coke and steel mill site is being turned into a huge site for tech research, commercial use and housing.
>>EXPLORE THE PHOTO ESSAY: bit.ly/2f7q7EJ
Grapple is produced by Kouvenda Media and Keystone Crossroads — a public media initiative covering both challenges and solutions for distressed cities.
Community Partners
