Underground parking. More than 10,000 square feet of pedestrian-friendly retail space. A 100-suite hotel.
Planners say these are the building blocks of development around Port Authority's T station in Mt. Lebanon.
"It's a way to use public transit ... to catalyze private development," said state Rep. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon.
Erik Wittmann isn't so certain. The Mt. Lebanon man worries developers are focusing on big-box development instead of boutique shops, which he thinks better fit the community's suburban character.
"Mt. Lebanon has to stop trying to compete with downtown Pittsburgh," said Wittmann, 62, a disaster consultant who chairs Shady Drive East Taxpayers Association.
"They have this thing about wanting to have these high-rises ... and grandiose plans," he said. "They talk about beautifying and they talk about making this a better place. But, for who?"
Officials in Mt. Lebanon and Dormont, as well as their counterparts in Allegheny County and at Port Authority, are working with consultants and mapping out development at three T stops through a multiyear South Hills Transit Revitalization Investment District, or TRID, study. A final report on the study is due April 1, officials said.
Both low- and high-density conceptual designs for the Dormont Junction, Mt. Lebanon and Potomac stations were presented publicly last week. They included a mix of homes, street-level retail and parking clustered around the three stations, each separated by less than a mile.
One plan creates nearly 20,000 square feet of retail space, 25 residential units and 70 parking spaces at Potomac Station. A high-density plan at Dormont Junction calls for more than 30,000 square feet of retail space, about 340 residential units and 14,000 square feet of public open space.
"We'd like to be the first ones in this part of the country to have a successful transit-oriented development," said Keith McGill, Mt. Lebanon's municipal planner. "We need to get a transit-oriented development in one of these communities (and) get that model out there for other people to follow."
The concept is being explored in Castle Shannon, officials said.
Smith said the conceptual plans won't involve eminent domain.
State Rep. Don Walko -- who co-sponsored TRID's enabling legislation in 2003 -- said the plans work because they encourage people in densely developed areas to use public transit.
"It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy," said Walko, a North Side Democrat. "It just makes good sense all around."
Others, such as Eric Montarti of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, say private developers should drive development, not Port Authority.
"They've just had a track record of bad projects, whether they're real estate projects or not," said Montarti, a policy analyst with the Castle Shannon group. "They're supposed to run a transit system."
Port Authority defended its role in the development, in part by stressing it is only one of the players involved.
"It's not our TRID," said Chris Hess, the agency's assistant general manager for legal and corporate services. "This is really being spearheaded by Allegheny County Department of Economic Development."
County officials say the public has been and will be involved in shaping the plans, which they hope to distribute to a number of developers.
