The City of Pittsburgh Standing Committees met on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 10:00 AM in Council Chambers to consider a range of legislative items including zoning amendments, financial resolutions, and grant authorizations. Key topics included a proposed waste transfer station setback ordinance, a fleet vehicle fund, and a $56 million bond issuance for capital projects. Public testimony focused heavily on environmental justice concerns in the Hazelwood neighborhood.
Multiple residents and stakeholders spoke in favor of Bill 2025-2385, which would add a definition and 500-foot setback requirement for waste transfer stations. Speakers included:
Good morning and welcome to the standing committee's meeting for Wednesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty-six. All council meetings will be live streamed on the city's website. And for guest speakers joining us at the table, please do not turn off your microphones. Our first order of business is rule call. Will the clerk please take the rule? Mr. Sharlin. Mr. Coghill. Miss Gross. Mr. Lavell. Mr. Rose. Mr. Mosley. Miss Salonetro. Here. Ms. Warwick. Mr. Wilson. Miss Strasberger Chair. Here. Six members present. Thank you. Our next order of business is public comment. I would like to remind all speakers that the rules of council state that comments are limited to matters of concern, official action, or deliberation, which are or may be before city council. Profanity will not be permitted. Please state your name and neighborhood for the record. You will have three minutes to speak, and our first registered speaker is Chief Pomay Chakmamia Halahi. Those that are able to be deconstructed and the environmental protections aligned with STG Eco-Side Prevention and our Stop the Eco Side campaign as a public health and environmental justice necessity across Pennsylvania. More than one million residents were recently warned to limit outdoor activity due to elevated fine particle pollution. Not seeing them with us, we will move on to Dr. Ronald Lynn Miller. Seeing Dr. Miller with us, we will move on to Brina Ritangi. Ratagi. I'm sorry. Can I be heard? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, uh Council members and everyone here today. My name is Brina Ratangi. I'm a first year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, as well as a social medicine fellow that works in Greater Hazelwood, and I'm a resident of Oakland. I'm here speaking in favor of the bill that proposes setting a minimum 500 foot distance between a waste transfer station from schools, homes, parks, and commercial zoning districts. There's a lot of concerns with having a waste transport station located on less than that distance, closer to where people live and work and play and spend times with their families. There's the concerns of odor, of poor air quality, toxins, noise pollution, and really that affects us in our homes. It affects our sleep quality and in school, it affects the noise and our ability to concentrate. And even in our lived environment, like the walkability of spaces, able to play in parks, and that can really disincentivize wanting to go out and get the recommended exercise per day that that really is the standard for preventing the incidence of these chronic illnesses that have really grown in prevalence across the country, such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, obesity.