Pittsburgh Zoning Districts - RIV Environmental Standards
By Kathleen Oldrey and Carolyn Ristau
Introduction
The Riverfront (RIV) zoning district contains several areas of special standards including a variety of standards that both directly and indirectly promote sustainable development. Environmental standards that affect development in the RIV are codified in multiple sections throughout Chapter 905, as well as the environmental standards that apply to all zoning districts and are located throughout the zoning code.
Overview
Environmental standards that apply throughout the city in all zoning districts also apply in the RIV, such as environmental overlays like the Landslide-Prone, Undermined, and Potential Steep Slope overlays. Per Section 905.04.F, stormwater management requirements apply in the RIV at the adjusted threshold of 5,000 square feet of development. Significant areas of the RIV are also within floodplain areas.
One overlay that is unique to the RIV zoning district is the Riparian Buffer area. The standard is a 125-foot buffer from the Project Pool Elevation within which permitted uses are limited to specific water-based uses. There are options to reduce the buffer to 95 provided additional standards and reviews are met. Per Section 905.04.B.4, the Project Pool Elevation is “the hydraulically based reference plane that indicates water surface elevation in an area regulated by water control structures such as dams”; the same section sets the Project Pool Elevation at 710 feet.
The RIV provisions include landscaping standards at a higher intensity than those outlined in Chapter 918; live native or naturalized landscaping is required to be planted on surfaces that are not covered either by buildings or by impervious surfaces. A certain amount of this area can be covered by landscape elements that are permeable but are not plantings, but invasive species are explicitly prohibited.
Several of the RIV’s nonresidential design standards, detailed in Section 905.04.G.3 are specifically sustainability-focused. Roof design standards call for green roofs, cool roofs, and non-reflective roofing, except in cases of solar panels or cool roofs, and site design standard 905.04.G.3.m. limits impervious surfaces along riverfronts to 40%.
The decreased parking requirements, discussed in another post, can help to encourage multi-modal transportation; additionally, Section 905.04.I.2 establishes limitations to the number of parking spaces permitted in any surface lot, and in surface lots between a building and a river. We can consider these to be environmental- or sustainability-related provisions due to how they promote multi-modalism and mitigate increased impervious surface for parking.
Challenges
If they are not taken into consideration early in project development, the additional environmental standards that apply to many facets of development in the RIV could lead to multiple revisions and iterations of the application. Overlays, buffers, and district-specific requirements and limitations have a considerable impact on shaping development in these areas.
Conclusion
The RIV’s significant environmental standards, along with other additional regulations unique to RIV, shape project design and planning. Four of the ten items in the district’s purpose statement are related to sustainability, ecology, and environmental protection, and the provisions throughout the chapter seek to further those goals.
