[UC] Re: Pittsburgh

[Anthony West]

(Excuse me if this is an inadvertent repost): Melani wrote: >One thread we've lost track of, though, is whether or not the Pittsburgh HD >ordinance proposed for Shadyside is at all similar to the Philadelphia >ordinance.  The original person who brought this up - I forget now who that >was - when questioned, said that he assumed so but hadn't read it and didn't >even know exactly where to get it.  >The fact that people who may or may not be similar to us, in a Pittsburgh >neighborhood that may or may not be similar to our own, rejected a proposal >that may or may not be similar to our HD law, doesn't really tell us a lot, >does it?   Anybody may check out the outlines of the Pittsburgh ordinance by going to the homepage of the City of Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission, at www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/wt/html/historic_review_commision.html. For further information they may call Angelique Bamberg of the Office of Historic Planning, at (412) 255-2243.   On the surface, the Pittsburgh HD procedure looks quite similar to that of Philadelphia. One obvious difference is that Pittsburgh *does* regulate paint jobs. Yet in 1990, when the Shadyside West HD proposal was put forth, residents were told that paint would not be regulated, just as they are now being told in Spruce Hill. It appears that the policies of a historical commission do evolve over time, and that features it chooses not to regulate at the outset may indeed fall under its control in a few years.   -- Tony West