On Wednesday, July 1, 2026, at 1:30 PM in Council Chambers, Pittsburgh City Council convened a post-agenda hearing to discuss Bill 2026-0531, a resolution authorizing the adoption of the Downtown Pittsburgh Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID) Implementation Plan and related agreements. Council Member Khari Mosley chaired the meeting, joined in person by Council President Daniel Lavelle, Councilwoman Erica Strasberger, Councilwoman Kim Salonetro, and Councilwoman Barb Warwick, and online by Councilman Bobby Wilson and Councilman Bob Charland. The URA and Mayor’s Office presented the plan, followed by extensive council questions and debate. The meeting also included public testimony on unrelated land bank property acquisitions.
Ik ben Good afternoon and welcome to Pittsburgh City Council's cable cast post agenda on Bill 2026 0531 relative to authorizing the adoption of the downtown Pittsburgh Transit Revitalization Investment District Implementation Plan and Related Agreements. Council District 1. For the record, we are joined by Council President Daniel Lavelle, Councilwoman Erica Strasberger, Councilwoman Kim Salonetro, and Councilwoman Bar Warwick. Other members may be joining us shortly. And before we invite our esteemed panelists, I did want to give some brief remarks. I did want to give some brief remarks. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. And we also, because my back is turned, we also have uh Councilman Wilson and Councilman Charlotte joining us online as well. Thank you for that. Um, and because I didn't have opportunity to give remarks at the public hearing, I just wanted to start off with some brief remarks before we invite our panelists. I want to welcome my colleagues on council, our administration officials, community stakeholders, the residents of Pittsburgh who are joining us today, as well as those who have reached out to my office to express your support or opposition to this proposal. Today we are convening this post-agenda hearing to discuss the proposed downtown transit revitalization investment district, or as we call it the TRID. I called for last week's public hearing and today's post agenda several weeks ago to increase public engagement, and I strongly urge all stakeholders to continue to weigh in as City Council deliberates. So if a property owner appeals to assessment today, the county takes the prop the property's current fair market value and multiplies it by the common level ratio, with the common level ratio at 50%, a commercial property could be taxed on half of its current market value. As a result of the pandemic, when downtown building owners saw their actual market values drop, a wave of tax assessment appeals were filed. A staggering loss of a half billion dollars in taxable value from just a handful of buildings. About a quarter of the entire city's property tax revenue for a century. This fiscal fallout has been acute, creating a severe financial dilemma. Because of many of these appeals took years to resolve and apply retroactively, the city has had to pay out millions of dollars in cash refunds to taxes already collected. And Pittsburgh's real estate tax revenue has seen a downward trajectory. City budget projections show annual property tax revenues steadily declining, complicating funding for local services and other critical programs. And with the downtown commercial tax base shrinking, a larger percentage of the property tax burden is shifting onto residential homeowners who either have an appeal, their their assessment or properties have not lost market value. The loss of property tax revenue paired with the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds contributed to a multi-million dollar deficit for the city, forcing tighter spending controls and forcing officials to rely heavily on other areas such as earned income tax, detransfer taxes, or most recently skill games to keep the city financially afloat. During our discussion today, I will be viewing this proposal through the following lenses. Optimizing affordable housing in the golden triangle. To ensure growth occurs comprehensively, sustainability and responsibly, the use of public mechanisms to spur investments in downtown must guarantee permanent affordable housing. True transit-oriented development means that the working class families, the service workers, and the folks who rely on our transit system the most are able to live next to it. Intentional economic inclusion. The economic investment of the trip must also create pathways for minority-owned women-owned and local small businesses to shut up shop and thrive in a rebuttalized downtown. It means ensuring that the construction and development jobs generated by this district pay family sustaining wages, utilize local hiring, workforce training pipelines, and our local labor unions. Robust, transparent community engagement. Trids by design require meaningful community engagement. We need to establish clear and continuous mechanisms for residents, advocates, and stakeholder groups to weigh in and understand how these captured funds will be invested. The community's voice will be an active participant in this process. Investments in upgrading our bus stops, ensuring our light rail and rapid transit access points are fully ADA compliant, slowing down traffic to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists, and making the actual experience of that navigating downtown safe, enjoyable, and seamless for everyone, especially our seniors and neighbors with disabilities. It is imperative that the value capture builds more than just brick and border, but builds community. My goal today is to listen, ask questions, and to ensure that this trip proposal is robust enough to deliver on these promises to begin a new chapter of prosperity for our beloved city. We want growth, but we want just growth. I look forward to the testimony for our from our esteemed panelists and questions from my esteemed colleagues. Thank you all for being here today. And with that, I turn it over to our esteemed panelists and ask you to join us at the table. And now once you get settled, please introduce yourself and thank you for joining us today. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. My name is Sushila Nimani Stanger. I'm an executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and I'm joined by some colleagues who are allowed to introduce themselves. Hello, my name is Catherine Murray. I'm the director of government affairs and strategic initiatives at the URA. Thomas Link, uh Chief Development Officer at the URA.