What’s the Use? Vacant Land

By Carolyn Ristau

Previously, we dived into the differences between Pittsburgh’s and Allegheny County’s use designations, as well as the differences in their distinctions between residential and commercial uses. Another point of disagreement between the city’s zoning code and the county is the definition of vacant land.

According to the County, any parcel without a significant structure is considered vacant land. This definition includes side yards, grass lots, community gardens, parking lots, and even some parcels with small sheds or garages on them. Zoning agrees with the second one, but considers community gardens, parking, sheds, and garages as uses. Any lot, whether a side yard or stand-alone lot, with these uses is not considered vacant from a zoning point-of-view.

This disagreement impacts applicants working with a parcel that the County has designated as a vacant lot because of addressing. In the early 2000s, the County removed the addresses from every parcel it considered vacant. In the decades since, this has caused headaches for many applicants.

One example of the challenges this creates is for an applicant seeking a permit for a commercial use that has its accessory parking on a separate lot. Zoning will often need to verify that the parking the applicant claims has been reviewed and approved by zoning. Without an address, tracking down the past paperwork for the parking lot becomes twice as hard. Regardless of the results of the search, this adds time to the review process. However, if the paperwork cannot be found, then the applicant will be required to go through the review and approval process for the parking lot under the current standards.

Another challenge is that EMS requires that all permits be issued to an address so that, in case of emergency, their services can find the site in a timely manner using GIS, which can mean the difference between life and death. This means that every application for a lot the County considers vacant will have to get a new address from the Address Committee before the permit can be issued. This applies to all permits from a temporary event to minor modifications in an existing parking lot to new construction. While no additional fee is currently charged for the administrative costs of processing an address request, it will often add several weeks to the permit review process.