The Pittsburgh Planning Commission is to vote today on whether to recommend changing the zoning of a residential strip that lies at the heart of a developer's plans to build a Walgreens on Penn Avenue between Braddock and East End avenues.

The land now holds three, three-story brick homes that Paradise Development Group proposes to raze and replace with a two-way driveway for Walgreens customers.

The Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association has been countering the Paradise plans since late fall, and its members say they are fighting to protect the residential identity from being eroded.

But two residents whose house would be bought and razed, Mary Ann and Tom McGuire, say commercial development and noise has already eroded their quality of life and that they're ready to sell.

"I wish I could have gotten out of that house 15 years ago," Mr. McGuire told the planning commission at a hearing last month. His house is one of the three century-old homes proposed to be sacrificed. "My house is assessed at $40,000 because of that location. It's not the quality of life people are making it out to be."

The Department of City Planning is recommending approval, said planning Director Pat Ford, "not on grounds there was an error of original zoning, but to reflect the changes that are happening" in the commercial development of the area.

The neighborhood association said it will appeal to the zoning board if City Council approves turning the half-acre strip of land into a commercial zone. The council decision could come later this month.

"We're willing to pursue this as far as we can take it," said association President John Mayberry. "But we're also still meeting with the developers," as recently as last week. "We're still trying to work out a compromise."

Paradise Development's project manager, Brandon Miles, said yesterday he and his staff have looked at every shape and form of plan and studied the issues "for a long time. We're trying to satisfy all parties concerned."

In the meantime, Paradise has appealed to Common Pleas Court for rulings on two zoning board decisions regarding the development, including a rejection of an earlier site plan.

Arnold Horovitz, attorney for the neighborhood association, said he will file to intervene.

All but the driveway -- the store itself, a drive-thru pharmacy, 36 parking spaces and landscaping -- would be on property that has been zoned commercial, where a gasoline station last operated several years ago.

Many opponents of a zoning change are calling it an example of "spot zoning" to accommodate one property owner while chipping away at the community.

Mr. Horovitz said spot zoning is only permissible when it is the other way around -- to answer community need before that of one property owner.

Mr. Ford said he doesn't believe this meets the definition of spot zoning, which he said is inherently impermissible because it makes a property a zoning "island" surrounded by properties zoned differently. The properties the Planning Department wants to rezone, he said, abut the vacant gas station and would extend the zoning it has -- local neighborhood commercial.

Many opponents of the change say they believe it was proposed only because Paradise Development came in with a tenant. Mr. Ford said zoning changes are usually "precipitated by something," but that this one would not be done specifically to help Walgreens come in.

"You cannot base the decision to rezone this land on a Walgreens, but as if any commercial use would locate there," said Mr. Ford. "I tell the commission, 'You have to be comfortable with a zoning change considering any use allowed.' "