Heinz Endowments' $750,000 grant revives city comprehensive plan.

With $750,000 from The Heinz Endowments, city council won’t have to cancel the comprehensive plan after all.

Last year, council voted to terminate “ineffective and ineffectual” contracts with three consulting firms that were assisting the Department of City Planning to create the plan. The cancellation would have saved taxpayers from paying the remaining $2 million on the $6 million contracts.

Then-Mayor Ed Gainey and the planning department disputed council’s authority to terminate the contracts.

One criticism last year was lack of diverse representation in community engagement throughout the city, rather than just focusing on certain neighborhoods, such as the East End, while giving short shrift to others, such as the West End, which several council members echoed during the March 18 committee meeting.

The mayor’s chief of staff, Dan Gilman, agreed. “There are some core constituencies who hadn’t been at the table,” he said. “If this plan is going to be successful and have broad buy-in, we need to reach out.” He said the city is looking for new engagement and intends to have one meeting per council district during the drafting process with additional meetings before final review.

Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park said she is not sure the plan will be effective since the city has so many layers of government. She pointed out that city government does not have jurisdiction over Pittsburgh Public Schools or authorities such as Pittsburgh Water and Pittsburgh Regional Transit. She said there are still no official collaborations or memorandums of understanding between those and the city for the plan.

Gilman said that the administration will also follow through with the previous administration’s $250,000 reduction to the overall cost. With the assistance from The Heinz Endowments the city’s remaining cost for the plan will be $1 million.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” Council Member Anthony Coghill of Beechview said, “but it’s a big drop.”

Coghill said the department can now resume its work on the plan. The projected completion date is the end of the summer.