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Pine hoping Oxford's latest plan sits square with locals
Wednesday, September 15, 1999 By Rona Kobell, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A stormy 20-year chapter in North Hills real estate ended on a balmy evening this summer, when Pine supervisors approved Oxford Development Co.'s vision for 183 acres of wooded land. The handful of residents who attended the meeting made few comments -- a drastic change from screaming matches, lawsuits and general ill will that characterized relations among township residents, supervisors and Oxford the previous two times the Pittsburgh company tried to develop the land.
In the 1970s, before Pine and other fast-growing communities along the Route 19 corridor became the coveted areas they are today, Oxford bought nearly 300 acres bordering Routes 19 and 910 for the bargain price of $2 million.
Twice since then, the company has tried to develop a shopping mall there. Both times, residents fought vigorously. Both times, Oxford abandoned its plans.
The scenario has repeated itself with other companies and other townships, to the same results. For 18 years, residents in Frazer, also in northern Allegheny County, fought Damian Zamias's attempt to develop a mall off Route 28, though Zamias says he's now ready to go forward. Collier residents also won an 18-month battle to fend off a mall in their South Hills community.
In Pine's case, though, Oxford owned the land, and it was going to be developed eventually.
What the township and the developer agreed on is Town Center Planned Residential Development, a mix the of homes, big-box retailers, restaurants and offices. The Oxford Athletic Club already sits on 20 acres, and the Pittsburgh Home Savings Bank and Sheetz convenience stores have signed leases.
Anchoring the development will be the town center -- tree-lined boulevards, boutiques and a town square that evokes Main Street America. Its inception is part of a national trend away from enclosed malls, surrounded by huge parking lots.
The arrangement isn't a perfect one. Several residents bordering Oxford's property are reeling about a zoning change that will put multi-family homes next to their backyards. And Oxford wasn't always thrilled about the township's rigorous architectural standards and restrictions. But in finding a solution everyone could live with, everyone had to give a little.
A brief history
Pine's reservations about development are easy to understand, given its vantage point between the sprawl of Cranberry and Wexford.
Once a bustling farming community, Pine's 17 square miles retain their rural feel. For the past 30 years, some of its 6,000 residents have torn down Oxford's "no hunting" signs while stalking deer. Lately, some have taken to riding motorcycles or all-terrain-vehicles on Oxford's property.
Oxford's first plan for its strategically placed property was a regional mall, which the township approved in 1978. Opponents concerned about its impact on local traffic and the environment delayed development for five years. When the shouting ended, the deep recession of the early 1980s hit, sending demand for retail space plummeting. In addition, some potential tenants Oxford flocked to Ross Park Mall, which opened in 1986.
Its next attempt was in 1990, when Oxford announced plans to build Wexford Mills-the Wondermall, a collection of more than 160 outlet shops.
Pine supervisors unanimously approved Wondermall, but residents rallied against it. There were a flurry of lawsuits and a flood of complaints to the zoning board.
"We got chastised for doing the best job we could possibly do," said Nick Navarro, a Pine supervisor who voted for the mall and worked on the current town-center model.
Eventually, the challenges, an economic downturn and an outlet mall at Grove City killed Wondermall.
Eric Cartwright was mindful of Wondermall's lessons.
"If a community doesn't want you to do something," the Oxford vice president says, "you can fight the battle. You can win it." But, Cartwright adds, that's not the best way to move into a neighborhood.
In Cartwright's view, Pine will always be a "protective and protected" community, one that will battle big stores and mega-developments in its backyard because its residents have seen how formerly quaint communities around it have been transformed.
While town-center concepts are gaining momentum as an antidote to sprawl, Cartwright views them as a largely untested idea.
"A lot of people are talking about it. Not that many are doing it."
In fact, Oxford might not be doing it at all were it not for the township requiring it.
Working it out
About two years after Wondermall's demise, the Pine planning commission began drafting the Town Center Planned Residential Development. The township hired Herbert Rowland and Grubic Inc., consultants from Cranberry, of all places, to help plan the development and arrange town meetings.
At Pine's first meeting, hordes of residents came. They wanted tree-lined streets and a town center, similar to the one the firm helped develop in neighboring Richland. Oxford representatives weighed in, too, telling residents they needed something more to make it profitable.
"As opposed to a big mall coming in, the township and the residents were leading the charge," township manager Gary Koehler says. "They were part of the process from the beginning."
For one year, the planning commission met twice a month, hammering out requirements for a mixed commercial-residential development. The plan was specific, even detailing how much glass would be in each window.
Oxford revised its plans for the development four times in response to Pine's requirements.
Pine told Oxford the development could be 55 percent commercial and 20 percent residential, with the remainder dedicated to open space.
That's enough for 500,000 square feet of commercial development and 300 housing units.
The plan also includes a buffer of green space between Oxford's land and Oakhaven, a 50-acre development bordering Oxford's property that the company once owned but sold in the early 90s.
Cartwright admits there were tradeoffs.
Among them was Oxford's desire to build more dense, multi-family housing, which it can't do under the rules. In addition, Oxford forfeited commercial density and, along with a local church and another local developer, spent nearly $1 million to realign Wallace Road, which rings the development's northern portion.
Pine also made concessions.
It revised the zoning to mixed-use commercial-residential, in part to meet Oxford's desires. It changed a 14-acre parcel of land from single-family to multi-family housing, raising the ire of Oakhaven residents who border it.
Mark Gartner, an engineer who grew up near Pine and has lived in Oakhaven for one year, said people in his neighborhood are concerned about the plan. "It really sounds like everyone is trying to do the right thing. But it's not happening."
Oakhaven residents worry about the buffer between their property and Oxford's -- an issue supervisor Navarro and township manager Koehler say has been resolved -- and about Oxford's nebulous plans. Gartner wishes Oxford would say what kind of housing will be built near Oakhaven, whether it be townhomes, garden apartments or some combination.
"Oxford hasn't exactly been forthright," Gartner says. "There are no specifics. They're a business. They have to have a strategic plan."
Oxford can't be more specific because it's not sure what businesses the town center, to be called the Village at Pine, will attract, Cartwright says. Navarro, who is in the construction business, says residents can't expect the company to forecast what it doesn't yet know.
More troubling to Oakhaven resident Bill Marshall is the provision that Oxford can develop 10 units of housing per acre.
"That's pretty darn high. I don't want that 40 or 50 feet from my daughter's swingset."
Marshall's job as manager for strategic planning at PPG Industries took him from Minneapolis to Pittsburgh in 1997. Oakhaven was just one of the developments his family toured. Marshall said if he'd known Oxford owned and was planning to develop the land, he would have thought twice about buying it.
Some Oakhaven residents reported to Navarro and others that their real estate agents assured them the land would never be developed.
"I believe that's what was told to them," a sympathetic Navarro says. But he wonders how people can be so naive in the fast-growing North Hills.
Koehler is miffed at the insinuation that Pine wasn't diligent enough in getting the word out. Pine posted numerous meeting notices outside its building, and puts minutes from all the meetings on the Internet.
Too many people listen to their real estate agents, instead of checking with the township, Koehler says. "If you don't own the land behind your house, and you're told it's going to remain woods forever, then you'd better double-check."
It isn't the first time Oakhaven was caught in a development flap. In 1993, Oxford sold 75 acres of its Pine parcel to developer Ron Heurich Jr. for the 93-home subdivision.
Residents of neighboring Hill Road mounted a court challenge, accusing Pine's board of supervisors for violating the law when it approved Oakhaven.
It's almost ironic that now it's Oakhaven residents who are doing the protesting.
Despite the scattered protests, Koehler says objections to the town center are "night and day" from the ugliness of earlier disputes. And, he notes proudly, Pine has won several awards for its town center concept, among them the Pennsylvania Planning Association's Merit Award in 1998.
Cartwright estimates the Village at Pine will take 10 years to complete. The planning commission will vote on Oxford's plans for each building to ensure it sticks to the standards.
The residents will watch, too, says Oakhaven's Marshall. He wants to make sure Oxford follows through with its town center -- and doesn't try to sneak through something akin to Cranberry sprawl.
"Whether the town center will materialize is a big question," Marshall says. "Left to [Oxford's] own devices, it won't."
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