State grant could help create large, uninterrupted recreation space in Monroeville
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There’s still a good bit of fundraising to go, but a grant of more than a half-million dollars has the Allegheny Land Trust halfway toward its goal of acquiring 95 acres of property in Monroeville for conservation.
“We’re able to use this grant as the first step for this land that we have under contract,” said Lindsay Dill, senior director for marketing and community engagement at the trust.
The $521,000 grant was announced in mid-January by state Rep. Brandon Markosek, D-Monroeville. It comes from the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources through its Community Conservation Partnerships Program.
As such, it requires a matching component, which Dill said the trust is hoping to pull together through corporate and private donations, along with other potential public funding sources.
“As our communities grow, it’s important to preserve outdoor spaces that can grow along with them,” Markosek said. “I’m pleased to see an investment from the state for an area where folks in Monroeville can go to enjoy the great outdoors.”
This property in particular – which trust officials have dubbed the “Gateway Woods” conservation project – offers a unique advantage in terms of recreation: it is situated directly between Monroeville Community Park East, Monroeville Community Park West and Pitcairn’s Sugar Camp Park. In addition, the southeastern side of Community Park East shares a border with another property, Mosside Slopes, that has already been acquired by the trust.
Essentially, the new property offers a chance to create a 400-acre, relatively uninterrupted green space in central Monroeville.
“They’re all adjacent or very close,” Dill said. “We think it has the potential to make connections with the nearby parks.”
Trust officials also estimate that the property absorbs roughly 78 million gallons of stormwater each year, a big help in the flood-prone Turtle Creek Valley.
The trust undertook similar efforts in Sewickley Hills last year, raising money and seeking grants for 90 acres spread over three properties in the borough. And in Reserve, the trust was able to raise more than $700,000 in 2021 to preserve Girty’s Woods, an urban forest spanning 155 acres on the township’s border with Millvale.
An additional upshot for Monroeville is that the conservation and preservation of the property will help satisfy municipal separate storm sewer system, or MS4, requirements, state-mandated steps to reduce runoff and pollutants entering into local waterways. The municipality in 2018 instituted a stormwater fee for property owners to help fund a state-mandated MS4 improvements, estimated to cost roughly $7.5 million per year.
Overall, the trust has placed more than 3,600 acres into conservation over its three decades in existence.
The contract to acquire the property requires the trust to raise the remaining $567,510 it needs by December 2023.
For more, see AlleghenyLandTrust.org.