South Side Park

Restoring a hidden urban park through stormwater design and restoration ecology

Pittsburgh, PA

Nestled on all sides by neighborhood streets, South Side Park is a hidden 64-acre park up the hill from bustling Carson Street business district, which has been chronically under utilized. South Side Park is characterized by a few heavily-programmed park edges, a wooded interior, and natural terraces. A lack of landscape legibility impedes getting into and exploring the park. Entrances are easy to miss and the trail networks can be confusing. South Side Park has many breathtaking views as a result of its unique topography. Natural terraces and openings in the canopy allow sweeping views of downtown Pittsburgh through the park.

Partners

Department of Planning City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Hilltop Alliance, Friends of South Side Park, Allegheny Goatscape, Studio Bryan Hanes, Brean Associates, Allegheny County Conservation District, Student Conservation Association, Landforce, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, Bandi Schaum Community Garden, GTECH Bandi Schaum Trailhead Project, Arlington Civic Association, Landforce, South Side Athletic Association, Student Conservation Association, South Side Bears, Pittsburgh Sports League, Monster Sports, CitiParks, Arlington Recreation Center, Brashear Association Henry Kaufman House, and residents of South Side Flats, South Side Slopes, and Arlington neighborhoods

Project Roles

Co-Founder, Friends of South Side Park; Co-Founder, GoatFest event; Director of Green Space Projects, Park Planner & Designer; Advisory Committee, South Side Park Master Plan

Special Projects

User Survey of South Side ParkInvasive Species Removal with Allegheny Goatscape, South Side Park Map and Guide, GoatFest 2018 & GoatFest 2019, 40+ volunteer events, 500+ volunteers; 2 major park events, 8,000+ attendees

Report on the Public Use of South Side Park, South Side Park Master Plan

Design Documents

Stormwater in South Side Park

South Side Park sits at the top of the M16 combined sewer shed, which discharges into the Monogahela River. According to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s City-Wide Green Infrastructure Assessment this sewer shed discharges around 102 million gallons of combined sewage overflow per year. This plan identifies the M16 sewer shed as a target area for managing stormwater runoff and reducing combined sewage overflows. The park’s hydrological system included a series of groundwater seeps that are being channeled into M16 catch basins.

Adjoining neighborhoods to South Side Park have seen a series of plans and development projects in recent years that link to the park. The M16 Conceptual Design Plan (Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority), the South 21st Streetscape project (Western PA Conservancy), the 18th Street Corridor Study (Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority) and the 2016 update the the South Side Neighborhood Plan all provided valuable context during the South Side Master Plan process. The Master Plan was designed to connect into the South 21st Street green infrastructure plans that are under construction and reflect the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s wider visions for the M16 sewer shed.

South Side Master Plan

The South Side Master Plan is an outcome of the City’s comprehensive Open Space Plan (2013) which identified South Side Park as a potential Signature Park in need of a master plan. Over the past 15 years, South Side Park has been the subject of multiple plans and reports. The 2008 Greenspace Management Plan by Skelly and Loy provided a detailed inventory of the park’s physical features and the trail system. Completed the same year, the South Side Park Stream Daylighting project report suggested green infrastructure designs that could alleviate some of the park’s water issues and turn the park into a water asset. More recently the Report on the Public Use of South Side Park by the Hilltop Alliance analyzed users perceptions of the park and its amenities. Two city-wide plans guided the development of the South Side Park Master Plan: the Open Space, Parks and Recreation Plan (Open Space PGH), a component of the City of Pittsburgh’s Comprehensive Plan, and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority City-Wide Green First Plan. Outcomes of the South Side Park Master Plan include developing a strategy for implementation phases for park improvement projects that can easily be adopted into future city budgets and presenting achievable projects within a larger unified vision that can help guide future capital investments.

Friends of South Side Park

Established in December 2015, Friends of South Side Park (FOSSP) is a volunteer-based advocacy and planning group representing the diverse set of park users, including South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Hilltop Alliance, Bandi Schaum Community Garden, Grounded Strategies, Landforce, South Side Bears, Pittsburgh Sports League, CitiParks, Arlington Recreation Center, Cobden Street Block Watch, and residents of South Side Slopes, South Side flats, and Arlington neighborhoods.

Ecological Restoration of Jurassic Valley

Within South Side Park, a 6-acre portion known as Jurassic Valley, is a diverse in topography and overgrown with invasive species. Although park partners, the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and Landforce have worked since 2013 to remove invasive species and establish trail network through the park, extensive overgrowth has limited conservation work in Jurassic Valley. In the 2008 report South Side Park Greenspace Management Plan, the authors identified that “in the worse case scenario, widespread establishment of invasive species in the park also threatens human health and well-being. If left unchecked, many of the parks’ older trees could die and disappear. A denuded landscape could be a catalyst for soil erosion and landslides, threatening homes and public infrastructure that surround the park.”

In 2017 and 2018, FOSSP was awarded grants from the Allegheny County Conservation District to hire the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, Allegheny Goatscape, to eat the invasive growth in Jurassic Valley. This was followed by invasive species removal and trail building work by the SCA student crews and FOSSP volunteers. By fall 2018, tree planting partners, Plant Five for Life and TreeVitalized programs, planted restoration tree saplings in the Valley.

Each year since 2017, FOSSP has hosted the annual GoatFest event in South Side Park, which celebrates the work of the goat herd and the ongoing restoration projects in Jurassic Valley. Each year the event draws 4,000 visitors to the park and improves residents awareness of the new master plan improvements and the park’s ongoing role in stormwater management in the City of Pittsburgh.