Allegheny County and local communities have high hopes that proposed legislation to designate former Mon Valley mill sites a 38-acre national historic area will pass quickly. Both houses of Congress are considering such bills.

If the bills pass and the U.S. Department of Interior creates a $75 million preservation and education park on both sides of the river in Homestead and Rankin, the expectation is that additional investment from private developers will occur in those neighborhoods and surrounding communities. U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, has had a bill calling for the designation in the House for several years and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced a similar version in the Senate two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Gov. Ed Rendell targeted the site for the state's Brownfield Action Team redevelopment assistance. An action-team project typically gets permits to proceed in half the usual waiting time. Since 2004, the team has fast-tracked 35 projects in 22 counties to redevelop more than 6,200 acres of brownfields, creating nearly 40,000 jobs.

That is especially good news for communities on the Rankin side of the river, where development has lagged behind the Homestead side, which is home to the Waterfront development.

"The Carrie Furnace [in Rankin] site is the most desirable piece of property in the Mon Valley," said County Economic Development Director Dennis Davin. "We have companies that are interested in developing there right now."

Mr. Davin said the county is committed to making infrastructure improvements in Rankin, Braddock and Swissvale that will spur development surrounding the furnace site, regardless of any national park designation.

The county bought the site from the Park Corp. in 2005 for $5.75 million.

The county has an ambitious land use plan in place that would make roughly a $10 million investment in roads, bridges and new and existing buildings in Swissvale, Rankin and Braddock.

"I think it can only be a good thing," said Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, referring to the introduction of the bill to the Senate. "Everybody would like to see those structures preserved."

He said the improvements the county has planned for Braddock will go a long way toward changing the image some people have of the community as being a place to avoid.

Likewise, Rankin council President William Price was pleased the project was moving forward.

"We need that property developed down there," he said.

In Swissvale, where the economic picture has not been as bleak, Mayor Deneen Swartzwelder said she was glad plans to develop the site were moving forward, but she had some concerns.

"Overall, we're excited that something is finally going to happen down there," said Ms. Swartzwelder. "I hope we don't get lost in the shuffle."

With the federal government potentially having a stake in the use of the land, Ms. Swartzwelder said she was worried that Swissvale, instead of seeing development that will expand its tax base, would instead end up with only a parking lot for a museum. She also worried whether a historical interest site would be a strong enough tourist draw to bring people in from outside the region on a regular basis.

The success of tours of the site offered last fall by the Steel Industry Heritage Corp., the lead organization promoting historic preservation of the site, would seem to indicate there is a strong audience for information about the region's historic ties to steel.

Heritage Corp. director August Carlino said his group started with a plan last September to offer four tours a day, two Saturdays a month, but soon had to increase the frequency of the program to nine tours a day every Saturday because of demand. A study his organization did in 1992 suggested the site could attract 375,000 visitors per year.

Mr. Carlino said the site's receiving national park designation should not mean communities having any less say in the planning process.

"We don't want to lose the community involvement. We want to keep the boroughs and community groups at the table," he said.