A developer is headed back to court in its bid to demolish three Downtown properties, including the former Froggy’s bar and restaurant.
For the second time, the Troiani Group is appealing a ruling by the board of appeals in the Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspection after it again rejected the developer’s emergency application to raze the structures at 100-102 and 104-106 Market Street.
In its appeal to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, Troiani claimed the July 26 decision by the board “continues to reflect a capricious disregard of the evidence.”
The case ended up back before the appeals board after the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in June vacated a Common Pleas Court ruling and a prior appeals board decision that denied Troiani request to tear down the buildings.
The appellate court concluded that the appeals board appeared to disregard “strong critical evidence” — a standard set in a previous court case — that the developer had presented in favor of demolition.
In its latest appeal, filed Thursday, Troiani argued that the board hadn’t learned its lesson.
“With the remand decision, the board defied the Commonwealth Court’s directive to address the ‘strong critical evidence’ from Troiani’s expert witnesses, which the court quoted at length,” it said.
“Without any analysis or rationale, and without any basis in the record, the board attempted to skew the record to justify its denial and continued to capriciously disregard the expert evidence.”
Troiani sought to raze the Market Street structures after getting emergency approval by the board of appeals last year to demolish an adjacent vacant six-story building at 209 First Ave. that it said was in danger of collapsing.
The developer took its case to the board regarding the Market Street properties after the city planning commission rejected its bid to tear them down as part of a plan to redevelop the site.
Troiani contended before the appeals board that taking down the First Avenue structure before first razing the dilapidated Market Street buildings could trigger a catastrophic collapse of the ones of Market.
But the appeals board wasn’t sold on that argument, saying that Troiani’s own reports and testimony “made clear” that demolishing the Market Street properties first could cause “the same catastrophic collapse scenario they seek to prevent.”
It concluded the safety measures required by PLI — such as closing Market and First and the sidewalks at least until the First Avenue structure was partially razed — should be enough to mitigate potential problems.
In its July 26 decision, the appeals board added that buildings “have been demolished in challenging urban locations many times before without demolishing adjacent structures as a protective measure.”
Nonetheless, Troiani, in its latest appeal, says the board ignored the Commonwealth Court’s directive ”to address the strong, critical evidence” in support of the proposed demolitions.
In the same vein, the developer asserted that the board abused its discretion in “disregarding substantial evidence that established that the only way to safely demolish the First Avenue structure is to first demolish the Market Street structures.”
It also maintained that there is “no substantial evidence of record” to support the appeals board’s “assumption that a demolition plan for the First Avenue structure could reasonably protect the Market Street structures.”
A city spokeswoman declined to comment on the latest Troiani appeal.
Even as the appeals board has rebuffed the developer’s pleas to raze the Market Street buildings, the city has condemned them as unsafe and ordered corrective action, with one possibility being demolition. But that would require planning commission approval.
Troiani wants to remove the First and Market buildings to clear the site for a proposed 30-story development that would feature 200,000 square feet of office space, 151 residences, two floors of retail, and 300 parking spaces.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: August 17, 2021, 9:30 a.m.
