Riverview Tentatively Approves Tax Study for River's Edge

Riverview School Board voted Monday to support a study for a plan that could potentially speed up developments at the River's Edge of Oakmont.

The board voted unanimously in February against conducting the study but members have since met with Brooks and Blair architects from Rothschild-Doyno and Allegheny County representatives who gave them freedom to change the resolution to their needs.

Riverview's resolution stressed the noncommittal nature of the agreement. The district, it said, is agreeing only to the feasibility of a Tax Increment Financing plan.

Under this type of plan, the school board would be able to provide money up front to develop the area and increase the tax base and job sector.

Allegheny County is on board with the study and will make a motion on it at its April meeting, said Ryan Chismark, a project manager from the county's economic development department.

All board members but John Hackworth voted to approve the district's compliance with the study.

Hackworth said he was standing by his initial reluctance about the potential of giving up tax revenue.

President Anne Shearon cautiously agreed to the rewritten resolution in what she said was an effort to prevent the process from going in circles due to inaction.

"Let's learn about it and make a decision one way or another," she said.

The study will examine the marketability of homes slated to be built on the Brooks and Blair property, which will occupy the smaller 28-acre parcel of land west of Kacin Companies' development.

The site, at the former home of Edgewater Steel Co., also will include room for a restaurant, parks and a private boat dock.

Processes for the development started in the mid-2000s when Oakmont Planning Commission began drafting a mixed-use ordinance for the use of the site.