Efforts to redevelop the former Hays Manor public housing project are on the fast track.
The McKees Rocks Borough Council, at its Tuesday night caucus workshop/voting meeting, will consider a plan to consolidate lot lines on the property as a precursor to the start of construction.
The property, which is owned by the Allegheny County Housing Authority, once held 13 walk-up style apartment units in 14 buildings constructed in the early 1940s and a free-standing community center building. That project was razed beginning in late 2024 and extending into last year.
Tuesday’s council workshop/meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the borough Municipal Building, 340 Bell Ave., in McKees Rocks. The borough’s Planning Commission is recommending the borough council approve the lot consolidation.
A public-private partnership involving the county Housing Authority, Pennrose LLC and Falbo Group LLC plans to redevelop the Hays Manor site, this time building a 50-unit rental community on the demolished Hays Manor site.
Christian Dambly, a Pennrose spokesperson, said it’s anticipated that building permit applications would be submitted to the borough “in the coming weeks.”
An overview of the project states that once full funding is in place, the project is expected to break ground in the spring and will be completed in 14 months.
The new community will be developed with low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) and reserved for households earning less than 50% of area median income – approximately $58,000, according to a Pennrose project overview document.
Preference will go to former Hays Manor residents who are in good standing and want to return.
The new Hays Manor also will be supported by project-based housing choice vouchers to assure that residents pay no more than 30% of their adjusted household income for rent, Pennrose said.
The 50 units, which will be managed by the Housing Authority after they’re built, will be spread across 10 residential buildings in a mix of townhouses and stacked flats, replacing the aging midrise apartment buildings that formerly stood on the site.
The unit mix will include six one-bedroom units, 31 two-bedroom units and 13 three-bedroom units.
Six of the units will be fully accessible to tenants with mobility impairments and two units will be equipped with devices for hearing and visually impaired residents. Ten of the units will be designed so that a visitor with limited mobility or using a wheelchair can comfortably visit the home.
The development will include a playground as well as a 3,200-square-foot community building that will contain amenity space for residents, supportive services space and on-site management and maintenance space.
The new project will include new grading and infrastructure to elevate buildings above the flood plain.
The project’s parking plans were at the center of a controversy that wound up in court and resulted in a consent order and agreement issued last week by Common Pleas Court Judge Mary C. McGinley.
The original redevelopment plan featured an off-street parking area with 18 spaces, but the township’s engineer said that design didn’t comply with the township’s off-street parking and screening requirements.
Pennrose sought a variance, which was denied, and that prompted Pennrose to appeal to Common Pleas Court.
In McGinley’s consent order and agreement, Penrose, the borough and the borough zoning hearing board agreed that Pennrose would provide “up to” 34 off-street parking spaces on the Hays Manor property and 10 to 12 parking spaces along Pine Alley. Pennrose said it incurred roughly $400,000 in additional costs to increase the size of the surface lot to provide an extra 16 spaces, bringing the total to 34 surface spaces.
The order requires Pennrose to revise its land development plan to include the new parking arrangement and that the borough needs to act on that revised plan within 60 days of its submission, unless Pennrose agrees to an extension.
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