Neighbors press city staff on heights, setbacks and uses during North Oakland rezoning hearing

Pittsburgh City Council held a public hearing Feb. 5 on Bill 13-03, a proposed rezoning that would change large portions of North Oakland from several existing districts to Urban Center Mixed Use (UCMU) and Urban Center Employment (UCE).

City planning staff described the rezoning as an implementation of the Oakland plan, an adopted neighborhood plan that the department said was finalized in 2022. "That plan is a 10-year shared vision for the neighborhoods of Oakland," Andrew Dash, deputy director of city planning, told council. Staff said the rezoning aims to grow housing and job opportunities and to apply new zoning districts that emphasize building form, mixed uses and public realm improvements.

Christian Umbach, senior planner, and Antra Tandon, principal planner, walked council and the public through the details the department said the districts would add: a focus on mixed-use development, building-form standards (ground-floor transparency, stepbacks and facade design), a green buffer requirement with a 15-foot minimum, an urban open-space requirement for large footprints and a minimum sidewalk width of 10 feet with at least a 5-foot clear path. Tandon also noted that inclusionary housing rules already in place in Oakland require projects with more than 20…