Final meeting slated for Greensburg residents to share planning ideas

Greensburg residents have one more opportunity to give input that will help city officials update their 15-year-old comprehensive plan.

The city-wide neighborhood workshop is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Hose Co. 2, 137 N. Pennsylvania Ave. During the event attendees will discuss how improving the city’s neighborhoods can help improve Greensburg overall.

“The feeling was we had already gotten a lot of very good information, but also that it was probably time for the neighborhoods to begin understanding that all of their input eventually was going to come together into a wonderful plan for the entire city,” said Susan Morgans, a communications consultant.

Overall, discussions will touch on innovative ideas from each neighborhood, and attendees will be asked to consider which ideas should be priorities.

Officials are also working to receive input from high school and college students.

“These are the people that we want to keep here,” said Councilman Gregory Mertz. “We want to keep them engaged in the community, we want to know their interests … because they are our city’s future.”

Council members in July first decided to move forward with updating the comprehensive plan — with the help of Pittsburgh-based Environmental Planning and Design — that will guide decision-making and development through 2040. In all, the plan will focus on several key elements, including blight mitigation, parks and recreation and citywide systems.

The document also will adopt a neighborhood-based approach that includes strategies for improving the quality of neighborhoods with citywide initiatives.

Over the past several months, officials have been hosting a slew of public input sessions in various city neighborhoods as they develop the plan.

According to Christian Umbach, community planner and urban designer with Environmental Planning and Design, common responses from the first two rounds centered around pedestrian mobility and connectivity. Several attendees identified issues with sidewalks and crosswalks as well as areas where traffic needs to slow down.

Residents also identified green space and general property maintenance in terms of property blight and keeping up with maintenance like trash or unkempt lawns as priorities.

“Once we know what the community values and cares about, that directly funnels into what is drafted into the plan. … It really is in response to what the community values and I think that’s really important,” Umbach said.

Following this weekend’s work session, officials will take the ideas and work them into a draft of the comprehensive plan.

That draft is expected to be shared with the planning commission in July. It will then be presented to council members in October. If approved, it will be recommended for a 45 day public review, with final adoption expected in December.

Updates will be provided at shapegreensburg.com.

“I think by giving so many people the opportunity to participate, I think that’s going to result in a plan that lives as opposed to a plan that just gets completed and put on a shelf,” said Morgans.