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Monday, August 26, 2002

By Scott Deacle, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

When the federal government doesn't force the country to adopt pollution curbs and other policies believed to promote sustainable development, state and local leaders sometimes fill the void.

Western Pennsylvania has a mixed record in that department, said Court Gould, director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a local group that promotes economic development that's environmentally friendly and equitable for all the area's residents.

The region was a national leader in controlling air pollution, Gould said. Laws that reduced the smoke spewing from the stacks of the area's mills served as an inspiration for the federal Clean Air Act, he said.

And Western Pennsylvania has three of 23 buildings certified as "green" by the U.S. Green Building Council.

But Pittsburgh is developing in some ways that don't meet Gould's definition of sustainable development. The region's death rate recently exceeded its birth rate, and its foreign immigration is among the lowest in the country.

Pennsylvania's brownfields laws are some of the best at encouraging redevelopment of old or abandoned industrial sites, he said, but the state is one of a shrinking number without a statewide comprehensive land-use plan.

Pennsylvania's huge number of local governments helps prevent smarter planning, Gould said. Until two years ago, state law required all local governments to allow all land uses, from factories to shopping malls. Those governments may now write land-use plans together, and some are doing that.

Perhaps as a result, a 2001 Brookings Institute report concluded that sprawl in Pittsburgh is worse than in Los Angeles and many other faster-growing cities.

Western Pennsylvania also has large disparities between white and black residents in unemployment, poverty and infant mortality, he said. That indicates economic development isn't benefiting the region's residents equitably.

Gould said he has met with visitors from around the world who want to learn how Pittsburgh dealt with its pollution and other problems.

"Pittsburgh has a regular flow of international visitors to look at our sustainable development story," Gould said. "Hopefully, they'll look at our equity turnaround in the future."