BREAN ASSOCIATES
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Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, May 2016
Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, 2016​

In early 2016, Brean Associates collaborated with Mullin & Lonergan Associates to produce a housing needs assessment for the City of Pittsburgh's Affordable Housing Task Force. 

Vacant Lot Toolkit, December 2015
Vacant Lot Toolkit, 2014-2015
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From September of 2014 through March of 2015, Brean Associates worked with Asakura Robinson to develop the Vacant Lot Toolkit for the City of Pittsburgh's Department of City Planning. The team created two important documents that will guide vacant lot reuse in the coming years: (1) a guide for community members and organizations who seek to put the City’s vacant lots to other uses; and (2) a set of policy recommendations crafted to smooth the reuse process. Brean Associates’ primary role was to engage stakeholders and the public around vacant lot issues to guide the two documents. ​

Selected Projects

Facilities Planning

The Brashear Association

Over the past decades, Brashear has seen its client base shift from the South Side Flats to the South Hilltop communities. In addition, staff hear over and over that South Pittsburgh teens and preteens need more resources to help get them ready to take advantage of the Pittsburgh Promise. Brean Associates has been working with Brashear's board since 2013 to address these evolving needs as the organization approaches its 100 year anniversary of service.
Needs Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement

Healthy Together

​​From late 2013 to mid-2014, Brean Associates worked with several partners, including Mayor William Peduto's Office, Allies for Children, the Allegheny County Health Department, and Consumer Health Coalition, to develop priorities, strategies, and a grant application for Healthy Together, an effort to enroll all Pittsburgh children in health insurance by 2015. Brean Associates had two main roles: (1) to help convene and facilitate a series of stakeholder committee meetings, and (2) to synthesize data from a variety of sources (stakeholder interviews, the U.S. Census Bureau, research conducted by a team of CMU information systems graduate students) to craft a narrative that communicated the need and how the proposed strategies would effectively address that need. In Summer 2014, Healthy Together was funded by the National League of Cities.
Wet Weather Planning

ALCOSAN

Brean Associates worked with ALCOSAN on wet weather issues from 2006 to 2013. From September 2011 through December, 2012, Karen led a team supporting ALCOSAN’s public participation efforts around the release of the Draft Wet Weather Plan. Lillian joined the firm in June of 2012 in the midst of the release of the Plan. During 2012 and 2013, we worked on the AECOM team staffing the efforts of the Sewer Regionalization Review Panel.

PWSA's Green Infrastructure Charrettes

In 2013, our work with ALCOSAN and a variety of communities throughout the region helped us dive into the facilitation of PWSA's green infrastructure charrettes as part of the Fourth Economy team. Fourth Economy's final report made some great recommendations for incorporating green infrastructure into Pittsburgh's Wet Weather Plan. 
Public Outreach in municipal Planning

Comprehensive Plans: Mount Oliver Borough and Ross Township

Throughout 2014 and 2015, Brean Associates collaborated with Delta Development Inc. and Grass Root Solutions to prepare Ross Township’s and Mount Oliver Borough’s Ten-year Comprehensive Plans. Thoughout the planning processes on both projects, Karen and Lilly convened and facilitated two Steering Committees comprised of local officials, municipal staff, and residents. They prepared demographic and other analyses for review by the Steering Committee and by the public. In addition to organizing two interactive community meetings in each community, Brean Associates conducted focus groups with a variety of interest groups (seniors, parents, business owners, etc.) and one-on-one interviews with local stakeholders. In Mount Oliver, Brean Associates also created, distributed, and analyzed an online community survey. At the end of the public outreach processes in Ross Township and Mount Oliver, Karen and Lilly synthesized feedback from the public meetings, online surveys, and interviews into the critical issues that stakeholders saw facing the two municipalities.
Land Use

Vacant Lot Toolkit, Pittsburgh Dept. of City Planning

From September of 2014 through March of 2015, Brean Associates worked with Asakura Robinson to develop the Pittsburgh Vacant Lot Toolkit. The team created two important documents that will guide vacant lot reuse in the coming years: (1) a guide for community members and organizations who seek to put the City’s vacant lots to other uses; and (2) a set of policy recommendations crafted to smooth the reuse process. Brean Associates’ primary role was to engage stakeholders and the public around vacant lot issues to guide the two documents. 

Urban Zoning Code, Pittsburgh Dept. of City Planning

​The Pittsburgh Urban Zoning Code Project (UZCP) was begun in 1993 as a comprehensive re-examination of the Zoning Code for the City of Pittsburgh. From the project’s start, Brean Associates was responsible for project management and public process development and coordination. Brean Associates developed and implemented a citizen caucus process in the early stages of the project, which brought over 250 concerned citizens together to discuss zoning. This caucus process then evolved in to the Zoning Advisory Group, a committee of forty citizens that continued to advise the drafting process.
 
In addition to the public process and project management components of the UZCP, Brean Associates was responsible for zoning code analysis, urban design recommendations, and drafting amendments to the Code throughout the project. Following the Code’s implementation in 1999, Brean Associates continued to work with the Department of City Planning to draft necessary amendments, coordinate meetings with concerned stakeholders, and work with City Planning to develop and implement a remapping process for the entire City.

Eastern Corridor Transit Study, Port Authority of Allegheny County

​The Pittsburgh Urban Zoning Code Project (UZCP) was begun in 1993 as a comprehensive re-examination of the Zoning Code for the City of Pittsburgh. From the project’s start, Brean Associates was responsible for project management and public process development and coordination. Brean Associates developed and implemented a citizen caucus process in the early stages of the project, which brought over 250 concerned citizens together to discuss zoning. This caucus process then evolved in to the Zoning Advisory Group, a committee of forty citizens that continued to advise the drafting process.
 
In addition to the public process and project management components of the UZCP, Brean Associates was responsible for zoning code analysis, urban design recommendations, and drafting amendments to the Code throughout the project. Following the Code’s implementation in 1999, Brean Associates continued to work with the Department of City Planning to draft necessary amendments, coordinate meetings with concerned stakeholders, and work with City Planning to develop and implement a remapping process for the entire City.

Selected Clients

ALCOSAN
Allegheny County
Allies for Children
Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation and Garfield Jubilee
The Brashear Association
Carnegie Mellon Studio for Creative Inquiry

The Community Builders
Community Design Center of Pittsburgh
​East Liberty Development, Inc.
​Highland Park Community Development Corporation

Homestead Area Economic Revitalization Corporation
​Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
Port Authority of Allegheny County
Riverlife Task Force

Ross Township
Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition
Urban Redevelopment Authority

5150 Penn Ave. / No. 300 / Pittsburgh, PA 15224